


Eternal Summers

by CanuckleheadCowgirl, magnetocerebro



Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [48]
Category: Marvel (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Gen, X-Babies, second gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 68,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28885224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanuckleheadCowgirl/pseuds/CanuckleheadCowgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocerebro/pseuds/magnetocerebro
Summary: Chance and Elin Howlett have spent most of their married life helping their friends and family pick up the pieces of their lives after Apocalypse tore through the X-Men. Now that everyone seems to be back on their feet again, they want to try to find their new normal. They aren't quite on the same page about what that normal should look like, but they're trying to find it together.The problem? Sinister thinks he's entitled to a say in both the Summers and Howlett lines. He thinks Chance is an aberration who never should have been allowed to live and Elin is a potential specimen for much more. And the two of them are never going to get any peace as long as Sinister's alive.
Relationships: Chance Summers (OC)/Elin Howlett (OC), Charlie Summers (OC)/Gerry Drew, Jubilation Lee/Noh-Varr, Kate Bishop/Kurt Wagner, Krissy Wagner (OC)/Sying-Varr (OC), Logan/K (OC), Scott Summers/Annie Hale (OC)
Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [48]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/552748
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	1. The Hard Questions

It was past breakfast, and most everyone in the mansion had dispersed to one corner or another doing their own thing. So, after cleaning her fingers of syrup, Lily made her way over to where Teddy was texting back and forth with America. It was clear that she'd talked K out of putting her hair in braids for the day, and her long, blonde hair was almost poofy as she dropped into the seat across from him and leaned her chin on her crossed arms on the table in front of her.

Teddy looked up at the little blonde and then grinned. "What's up, buttercup?"

She looked up at him and drew in a deep breath only to blow it all out at once almost immediately. "Where do babies come fwom?"

Teddy blinked at her in surprise. "Why do you want to know?"

"I heard-ed my big brover talknin' 'bout it."

"Which big brother?" Teddy asked, one eyebrow raised and honestly wondering if there was about to be a shotgun wedding.

" _Chance_."

Teddy couldn't help but laugh and then nod. "Yeah, he wants a baby pretty bad, huh?"

She raised her eyebrows and nodded her head. "Uh-huh."

"Well…" Teddy tipped his head to the side as he considered her. "Babies… come from my magic husband when he wishes real hard for small little sass boxes," she said with a smile.

She tipped her chin almost to her chest and gave him an incredibly dry look. "Nuh-uh."

"They so do," Teddy insisted.

She shook her head with her eyes closed. " _No._ Dat's not _right._ "

"You can ask Annie," Teddy said. "She'll back me up on this."

"I don't wanna ask Amnie," she said, throwing her arms across the table and resting her forehead on the flat. "I'm asknin' _you._ And you're _lynin_!"

"I am _not_ ," Teddy said. "You know I don't lie to sweet little girls. Billy really does wish cutie pies into existence."

She peeked up at him — only her eyes and the bridge of her nose showing from behind her arm. "Is dat where _you_ came fwom?"

Teddy had to let out his breath. "Okay, fair. I didn't come from Billy."

"Is dat where Elin came from?"

"No, uh ... not all kids come from Billy…"

"Or alllllll of the Summerses-es-es? And Elfses?"

"Some of the Summerses come from space and time traveling," Teddy smirked.

She dramatically pushed her hair out of her face. "You're jus' stallin'."

Teddy let out a long sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well… okay. So. You, uh… you take a mom and a dad and… well…"

He didn't get very far into his explanation before Logan came in from the garage to wash up. He'd been working on his motorcycle again — and as usual, there was a bit of grease and oil to contend with. "What are you so anxious about?" Logan asked over his shoulder as he started to wash up.

"Um… Lily wants to know where Chance is going to get a baby."

Logan stopped and slowly turned toward the pair of them.

Teddy seized on Logan's obvious discomfort. "So, why don't you, uh, explain to Lily where Chance is gonna get one of those, huh?"

Logan narrowed his eyes at Teddy and didn't bother to bite back the growl at that. "That'd be hard to do if he's dead, won't it?"

Lily let out a grumble. "I didn't ask where _him_ was gonna get one. I asked-ed where dey _come fwom_. An Ted-ee's bein' siwwy and keeps makin' up _stowies_."

At that, Logan covered his eyes with one hand and took a few deep, slow breaths — and to Teddy's surprise, he crouched down next to Lily, held her gaze, and simply launched into the truth. Stripped down and without any real detail, but it was the truth.

Lily thought about it for a moment, though she had a look on her face that read exactly how gross the idea was, before she looked over to Teddy. "Dat's weird."

"I tried to tell you about the more fun way," he pointed out. "Billy and I got our little ones from magic and dimensional travel."

Logan gave Teddy a look for that. "Lying to little girls. If it wasn't fun, do you think K would have gone ahead with more than one?"

"Hey, I didn't say we didn't have fun of our own. Neither one of us had to have _contractions_ ," Teddy said easily.

"You didn't get to feel the kicks either," Logan argued.

"Tomato, potato."

"Don't gimmie that. Ain't like you didn't grin for ten minutes straight when you felt any _one_ of those babies kickin'," Logan said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, I definitely did. But I'm a sucker for kids."

"Then why didn't you _tell da truth_?" Lily asked, staring up at him with her big, blue eyes.

"Well, you thought it was gross," he pointed out.

"But is it true?" she asked.

"Yes. But so was what I told you."

"But dat isn't how _I_ was born."

"Neither is what Logan told you," he told her gently.

"You sure about that?" Logan asked, crossing his arms. "No proof to the contrary, and chances are, that group took the _least_ complicated means possible."

"You really think in _any_ universe K would — no. Pretty sure this is a Kinney situation. Test tube baby."

Logan shrugged. "Makes it easier to think of that way, but … you don't know what it was like for her there. Neither do I. I can _guess_ , but … who knows."

Teddy let out a breath. "Well, Lily," he said, looking her way, "we think you might have been made the same way as your big sister, Laura. Someone took bits of Logan and a woman named Dr. Kinney and put them together. Logan wasn't involved. Not really." He shook his head. "Sometimes, babies are made differently. They're all special, though." He kissed her forehead. "Especially you."

"Nice save," Logan said with a chuckle as he started to head out, leaving Teddy with Lily and whatever follow-up questions she might have.

Teddy shook his head and then tapped Lily on the nose. "What do you think — should we just ask Billy to magic up a baby for Chance so he can be happy?" he teased.

"Yes!" she said brightly, nodding her head.

"Well, you should ask Elin," Teddy said. "She might want to do it the other way."

She shook her head slowly. "I don't fink so … she wooks at him like he _cwazy_."

"She does, doesn't she?" Teddy said. He reached over to pick her up and tickle her. "We'll let them figure it out. If they ask Billy, I'm sure he'll magic them a cute little girl for you to play with. But that's their decision."

She let out a long sigh. "O-kaaay."

"I know. It's so hard to be patient," Teddy said with a smirk. He put her up on his shoulders as he said it. "But in the meantime, why don't we go play with John and Chelsea? You're such a good big sister, you know."

She smiled brightly, then fell apart in giggles when he tickled her stomach. "Otay, that sounds fun. An' I can be _just wike my James._ "

* * *

Kari and Alyssa had coordinated to pull a double date together between the two of them, though this time, Kari was the one to choose the destination. And, true to form, she picked her mom's favorite pizza joint — the one closest to her Uncle Clint's home.

Like the last double, James and Alyssa met her and Tim at the restaurant — but at least this time, it was a much more relaxed place.

"This is pretty much a staple of any Hawkeye diet," Kari explained as she waved the group to a table close by the window. "Best pizza in New York."

"According to Clint's scale," James added to Alyssa as they took a seat. "Which brings into call how far it is from his apartment."

"Hey, it really is the best pizza," Kari said. "I grew up on this stuff."

James shook his head slowly. "It's not, but if it makes you happy …"

"It does. So shut up," Kari said, rolling her eyes at him.

James was smiling, and Alyssa was right along with him, knowing exactly what he was alluding to. The favoritism that Kate's kids had for Clint the more his age showed was getting blatantly obvious.

Tim cleared his throat. "Are they… always like this?" he asked Alyssa quietly.

"They grew up together," Alyssa said. "Their dads are best friends … so yes. Yes, they are."

"Alright," Tim said with a little nod as he rested his arm behind Kari while they waited for the pizza to arrive.

"Have you got your classes picked for the semester yet?" Kari asked Alyssa. "Last time we talked, you were still trying to decide on your physical science requirement, right?"

"I … think I have it figured out," she answered, nodding her head. "I'm sure it'll be fine. As long as the class I want isn't full by the time I get to registration." She smiled wider at her. "What about you?"

"Well, I'm really just going to focus on my art now that I'm done with high school," she said. "I'm working on a painting of those orchids from the wedding."

Alyssa turned to Tim. "Are you in college too? I think it's interesting to hear what everyone is focused on."

Tim nodded. "Pre-law," he said in his quiet voice. "My parents wanted me to go into business, but I'm not really interested in that."

James grinned at that. "Smart man."

"I thought so," Kari said with a smirk his way.

"What kind of law are you looking at?" Alyssa asked. "I'm focusing on journalism. Of course."

"Of course," Tim said with a smirk. "I was thinking constitutional law."

"Nice," James said, nodding along. "Keeping politicians straight? Tough job."

"Someone's gotta do it," TIm said, the smirk stretching into a smile.

"I told him if he makes it all the way to the Supreme Court, I'll do his official portrait," Kari teased.

"Think you can sit still for that long, Tim?" James had to tease.

"I think so," Tim said, smiling Kari's way. "Spending all that time with a pretty girl."

Kari blushed purple at that. "Yes. Well. Yeah."

James and Alyssa shared a little look and simply sat back to keep out of the way of all their quiet, shy flirting. When the pizza arrived, they dug in, with Kari pointedly insisting that it was the best and Tim quietly agreeing that it was pretty good.

James smirked to himself, refusing to rise to the bait, and instead, he took a moment to nuzzle his nose into Alyssa's hair to tell her next time they headed out, he was taking her to sushi. Which set the stage for some more intense flirting all around.

Of course, for _this_ double date, Kari had actually planned to leave the table partway through, and James got a little text while she was gone: _If he says anything evil, let me know. He's been nice so far, but now I'm paranoid._

 _Paranoid is good,_ was his quick response, though with Kari gone, Tim wasn't even sure where to start in talking to the other two, and what little he did have to say was absolutely non-offensive, even going so far as to talk about how he had no idea people their age could join the team.

So when Kari came back and there were no growls, she looked downright relieved as she sat down by Tim and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "You know, they do some cinnamon sticks here that are pretty okay, but the best desserts are down the street."

"You two have fun with that," James said. "We're headed out for coffee."

"Oh, okay," Kari said with a small frown, though she shook it off quickly. "Have fun!"

"Have an extra one for me," James told her with a smirk. "And split it."

Kari blushed a deep purple again. "See you at home, James," she said as she put the money on the table to pay for the pizza and teleported off with Tim before anything blush-worthy could happen again.

Of course, that had James laughing outright. "Thought they could use the privacy," he said to Alyssa. "But if you _want_ something sweet, I'm sure we can find our own spot."

Alyssa grinned and nodded. "I'm fine with coffee. I can get something sweet _there_ if I really feel like it."

"Not sure they have much that's sweet enough for you," James said as he offered her his arm.

Alyssa couldn't help but laugh at that and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "No, I've definitely got plenty of sweet right here," she teased right back.

* * *

Elin and Chance were already packed to go for their anniversary — this time to a cabin that Elin had asked her parents' permission to use — but when Elin went to find Chance to leave, she somehow wasn't surprised to find him in the living room on the floor with John balanced on his knees so he could "fly", both of them laughing hard and cracking each other up the whole time.

"Are you being a bad influence already?" Elin asked, though she wasn't specifying who she was talking to.

Chance grinned up at Elin and set John down, though John wasn't ready to stop playing with him yet and simply climbed up onto his chest to sit on him to keep him there. "Uh, yeah, pretty much," Chance said, still grinning at her.

She made her way over to sit down with them both, knowing that this set up was probably a volunteer situation, and it would last until someone came to get John. "So, how long are we playing with my little brother?"

"Just long enough for K to help a very upset Chelsea get a purple Band-aid," Chance explained. "She fell over trying to keep up with Lily, and Lily's been apologizing for her owie. It's precious — you should see it."

"I have seen that. A few times," Elin said, though she slipped down to lie on her side, propping her head up with one arm. "Hawkeye trying to keep up with a little feral. Not. Pretty."

Chance smirked at her before he blew raspberries into John's stomach until John told him to stop — then climbed onto Chance to snuggle him, pretty worn out from the roughhousing going on between the two boys.

"You're lucky he's so snuggly," Elin said to Chance.

"It's genetic," Chance said without missing a beat. "Come over here and I'll show you."

"We'll have time for that once we get moving," she promised. "Plenty of snuggle and cuddle time. If you can stand to snuggle me instead. I'm not quite _that_ small."

Chance grinned down at John. "What do you think, buddy? Think I should snuggle Elin for a while?"

John giggled and slapped him in the mouth, which was just that much funnier to him, and he tipped his head back, melting into a laugh.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes," Chance decided, grinning upside down at Elin.

She shook her head at him, but it wasn't too long before the room was invaded by a sad looking Chelsea with Lily attached to her in a hug promising to kiss her owie.

"You get a purple Band-aid, Chelsea?" Chance asked as John finally let Chance up to go check on his friends.

Chelsea nodded, still looking kind of sad, though she showed him the purple Band-aid. "Just like mama."

"You're some Hawkeye," Chance agreed, nodding seriously before he made sure to give Lily a hug. "Thanks for taking care of Chelsea, Lily. You're a good friend."

"Alright, get out," K said as she walked into the room behind the little ones. "You're making me sick with all the overly sweet."

Chelsea let out a little bitty giggle and halfway attached to K's leg. "I sweet!"

"You're super sweet," K agreed.

Chance grinned as he got to his feet. "See you next week, Mom," he said with a grin as he slid over to wrap his arms around Elin. "C'mon, El. What do you say to a campfire?"

"Sounds like a solid plan," she said before she gave her mother a little wave and the two of them headed out.


	2. You Need to Know I Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everything is awful. Oh God, oh God, somebody do something.

The whole flight was quiet out to the tucked away little cabin that K had hidden _miles_ from any other people. Chance and Elin got there as the sun was starting to go down, and they had just enough time to figure out what they were going to do for dinner and start up a fire before the darkness really settled over the forest.

And it was advanced levels of darkness. One look up at the sky and they could easily see not only the stars but also the star clouds that made up the edges of the galaxy in the pitch black sky. Elin was poking at the fire as the wolves began to howl in the distance, and she had to close her eyes and soak it in for a moment.

"Gorgeous," Chance said, pointedly looking her way just to get a rise out of her.

"I … wasn't doing anything … and I look like a mess after the rush to get things settled," she defended before she drew in a breath, held it and gave him a quick kiss. "Handsome."

He leaned back and shook his head. "My beautiful wife, by the light of the fire, lost in thought and enjoying nature… hey, I like when you're happy, what can I say?"

She grinned wider at him for that. "You don't have to say a thing about that," she said. "What do you say to a s'more? I brought the stuff …"

"You want sweets? Okay, I'll bite," he said, grinning crookedly.

" _Anniversary celebration_ , weirdo," she said with a laugh. "And I only brought your peanut butter cups."

"Oh good, those are the best s'mores." He leaned over to steal a kiss before she started to get out the ingredients.

A little time passed, and as they'd done at just about every campfire they'd shared since they were kids, she stole his perfectly toasted marshmallow. "Besides, I really only like this part."

He laughed and stole a kiss in return. "Yeah, I've noticed," he said, slipping another marshmallow on his stick. "It's nice to get kisses in return now that we're married."

"It's like stealing twice," she said, grinning at him. "Win-win."

"I married a thief."

"A marshmallow thief. To be fair."

"A thief," he insisted, kissing her with a smirk. "A scary, scary thief."

"I'm so not scary," she laughed. "Not toward you, anyhow."

"Well, I've got husband privileges, Mrs. Summers," he teased.

"True enough, Mr. Summers."

The fun and games went on through several stolen marshmallows and one shared s'more - though Elin did make sure to make some for Chance that she _didn't_ teasingly steal from him - and overall, the evening was pretty peaceful deeply in the woods.

The morning of their anniversary, however, was a little more interesting. The two of them slept in - partly from jet lag and partly from staying up too late the night before. So, when Elin turned to give Chance a good morning kiss, she had to tease just a bit. "Campfire s'mores for breakfast right? No fuss … some muss. Don't have to work too hard for it… "

Chance laughed at that. "You've got sweets on your mind," he teased her.

"It's from being around you so much. You make my teeth hurt."

He grinned and kissed her deeply. "I'm not even sorry," he said, not pulling back far from her when the kiss broke.

"I hope not," she said, though she was quick to reach over to the bedside stand to snatch up a little something for him, which was his first tip-off that she was already fully wide awake. "Ha. First. For once." She handed him the little wrapped box that held a new wireless headset for when he was piloting and jiggled her foot, half holding her breath as she watched him.

Chance was shaking his head and grinning at her. "You distracted me," he accused her.

"I totally did," she agreed with a little smile.

He laughed before he reached over to grab his present to her - a set of earrings with a necklace to go with it. "Thought you'd like something nice with all the weddings we've been doing lately," he said.

She smiled and kissed him again, then tapped her fingers on his chest as the kiss ended. Clearly she was building up to something. "Very sweet, but I wasn't actually done. That is only half of your present," she said, pointing to the headset and enjoying the look of anticipation as it spread over his features, even as she looked more anxious.

He raised his eyebrows. "Really? I didn't… get you a second one..."

"I'm not fishing," Elin said, then bit her lip as she smiled up at him - not in a rush to get to whatever the second half was.

He smiled and kissed her gently. "Alright. Happy anniversary. You shouldn't have. What'd you get me?" he teased.

"Well …" she started out slowly, drawing it out as she spoke, "if you want it…. I thought … I'd … maybe give you the green light."

Chance stopped nuzzling into her and blinked at her hard. "I… what?"

She tipped her chin down as her heart raced, already wondering if maybe … this wasn't the tenor she wanted the conversation to follow. "I thought … well, I thought if you really wanted to stop trying _not_ to get pregnant, I would maybe go along with you."

"...really? You're not… pulling my leg?" Chance asked, though he was starting to very slowly smile.

"Sweet Summers, that is something I swear to you I will never joke about." Elin finally looked up at him to take in the growing smile, though it really didn't ease her concerns. She just wanted to make sure he was _happy_ , though, and this was the one thing she thought _might_ do it.

He broke into a smile at last and then started to laugh before he pinned her down in a disbelieving kiss. "I've told you how much I love you, right?"

"Not today," she said with a quiet smile, glad that he was so thrilled despite her own lingering but mostly well-hidden anxiety over the whole thing. "But it's early."

"Well, I do. I love you. A lot," Chance said, still peppering her with kisses. "You're going to be amazing, El."

"Well, even if I'm not, you'll make up for it," she said.

"Hey, I've seen you with John and Lily. I'm not worried at all," he promised, nuzzling into her once more with a smile.

"Part of what I love about you. The pure faith."

"And I'm always right, too," he said, grinning wider.

"No, you're not."

"I am when it matters," he defended.

"You are when I agree with you."

He grinned and kissed her all over again. "Then it's a good thing we're in agreement."

….

Chance was still in a good mood the next morning after spending their anniversary on Cloud Nine, and he was grinning even wider when he saw that Elin was still dead to the world asleep. He kissed her cheek and headed to the kitchen to put some coffee on, then brought it back to their room with the grin still in place as he leaned down to kiss her awake.

"Good morning, sweetheart. Brought you some coffee," he said, though the smile died when he realized that she just wasn't waking up.

He frowned and tried to shake her awake, but there still wasn't any response from her at all. "El?" He started to panic, brushing her hair back - which was when he saw the small dart at the base of her neck.

"Aww. Crap." He pulled the dart out of her neck and narrowed his eyes at it, tossing it aside as he looked around for the source of the dart - though he'd barely started to look before he felt the tug of a telekinetic lift and flew off his feet, only for a pair of Marauders to walk in and grab him. Another two went for Elin as Sinister strolled in, looking over the scene with a smug, satisfied smile that turned into a sneer when she saw Chance.

"Still here," she said with a sniff. "I can't say that I'm not disappointed."

"Still sticking your nose in where it's not wanted," Chance shot back, trying to pull against the Marauders, but he was stuck tight.

Sinister waved his comment off, turning her attention to Elin as she directed the Marauders to take the two of them back with them. Chance felt his feet leave the ground, and he tried to twist away. "Leave her alone, you creep," he bit out.

"I could say the same to you," Sinister replied coolly.

"She's my wife," Chance said. "You're just a washed up scientist using an X-Man for a host."

"And _you,_ young man, are a sub-par specimen of a species that is no longer relevant," Sinister said. "What's worse is that you're clearly trying to taint decades of my work."

"Must not be very good work if I can screw it up so easily," Chance said with his eyes narrowed.

She glanced his way almost lazily. "There has been no reason for you to have lived as long as you have. I won't allow that mistake to continue - or to repeat itself."

Chance's mouth dried out when he realized what she was saying. He'd been thinking about the green light all morning, _probably_ projecting, and if Sinister didn't want future humans kids in the Howlett line... "You… it's none of your business if we — you — leave her alone," he spluttered, starting to really panic now.

"Count yourself lucky that I've found a use for you," Sinister said.

"I'm not helping you with anything, you third-rate excuse for a scientist!" Chance shouted, his pitch rising with every word.

"I don't need your consent."

Chance tried again to get out of the Marauders' grips, but he really was trapped, and he couldn't do much other than get more and more upset as the Marauders took him and Elin to one of Sinister's hidden-away places, far removed from civilization — much like the two of them had been up to that point.

"Don't fret, boy," Sinister said as the Marauders separated Chance and Elin. "It won't do you a bit of good to raise your cortisone levels too much."

"Where are you taking her?" Chance demanded, the threat completely sailing over his head when he was still too concerned about his unconscious wife.

"You'll see her again," Sinister said, following the Marauders that had taken Elin. "When I'm ready for you."

Chance watched as Sinister left with Elin and the Marauders — while the two that had Chance simply dragged him to a cell to wait.

He was pacing the length of the small cell and getting worked up, knowing that neither of them had been wearing their panic buttons — he hadn't even been wearing a _shirt_ and she was wearing _his_ — so no one would think to look for them for several days.

And considering Sinister was already "working" on Elin … that was going to be too late.

Not to mention whatever it was the pale creep had in store for Chance, which he really didn't want to think about.

He was still pacing when a scream split the air, and he froze in his tracks before it started up again, in earnest. He nearly tripped over himself rushing toward the side of the cell closest to the sound as he tried to shout over her and call her name so she'd know he was there and have _something_ to focus on, but that wasn't working. Or, at least, it didn't stop anything, not until Sinister must have finished, because it went silent on the other end of the hallway, leaving Chance shaking from head to toe with anger.

The sound of lumbering footsteps echoed the hall and the cell, and it wasn't long at all before two Marauders stepped in front of the cell and started to unlock it — as always, wordless as they made their way forward. It didn't matter much what Chance did to hit them; they were more reinforced than the ones they'd fought last they'd met, and seeing as they felt no pain, it was next to impossible to deter them.

With a few heavy hits, Chance was knocked senseless, and the two Marauders dragged him down to Sinister's lab, where Elin was still strapped down to an exam table — splattered with blood, shaking, and trying hard not to cry. They wrestled him onto a second table, where one held him down while the other snapped closed the shackles.

By that point, Chance was torn between outright panic and concern for Elin, though panic was definitely starting to win the battle by the time he was strapped down and the Marauders stepped back. It was too familiar. And even though it had been years since Jamie and Viper had kidnapped him and he'd spent ages trapped in the lab in Westchester after that, he still couldn't stop the almost instinctual, automatic _terror_ that set in from being restrained in any kind of medical setup.

He pushed down the memory of being unable to breathe, unable to stop screaming, and glanced over at the tools set out on a tray nearby. That… didn't help his panic at all. He closed his eyes, trying to keep a handle on it. "Elin," he said in as even a tone as he could. "Listen, I ... I'm here, okay?"

She met his gaze and nodded a few times, though she didn't want to blink at all, knowing that after all the healing she'd been through, even closing her eyes for a moment might mean passing out for hours. And she didn't want to leave him _alone_ with Sinister. Not with Sinister's record of trying to kill Chance.

"I love you, alright?" he said, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in the bottom of his stomach. "Always have. Always will. You got that?"

"Why are you telling me that?" Elin asked, shaking her head without realizing it.

"We didn't hit the panic buttons, El," he said in an almost dull tone. It was starting to really sink in for him, and he just… he had to make sure she knew he loved her.

She started to panic herself at his tone. " _No_."

"So just… do me a favor and don't … watch," he said slowly, barely fighting back the terror, trying to focus on Elin. She had already been tortured by this creep, and he didn't want to let Sinister use him against her to make it even worse. He'd seen what that had done to James, and he couldn't let the same thing happen here. It was the one thing he _could_ do — try to help her, keep her from hurting. "Don't let her do that to you."

" _No,_ " Elin snarled out, pulling and yanking on her wrists even though she wasn't quite healed yet. She pulled and twisted, keeping it up until she broke something in her hand — enough that she could pull her hand out of the manacle and start scrambling to find the release.

Of course, that was when Sinister arrived, looking annoyed when she saw what Elin was up to. Sinister tutted as she reached out to telekinetically rearrange Elin back the way she was supposed to be. And for good measure, she added another strap above her elbows to keep her from pulling her arm out again.

"Willful," she said with a sneer.

"And you're cowardly," Elin snarled at her.

Sinister waved a hand, then patted Elin's arm, ignoring her in favor of turning her attention to Chance and setting up leads and lines to get a baseline — which clearly showed his panicked heart rate and blood pressure, among other things. Sinister shook her head at Chance's readings and then turned to look through her supplies for a sedative. "I can't get anything done when you are like _this_ ," she said in an almost annoyed tone. "Overly emotional. Overly dramatic. And overly concerned for the well-being of a girl far above your place in this world. She'll be perfectly fine one way or another. That is the essence of her mutation, after all. You …" Sinister tutted again as she drew up a measure of the sedative for Chance. "So delicate."

"Chance," Elin called out when she saw the way that Chance was trying to brace himself as Sinister administered the medication. "Don't you _dare_ give up on me."

He was already starting to slow down from the shot when he glanced over at Elin and nodded quietly. "Love you too, El," he muttered as his eyes drifted shut.

Elin stared at him as he passed out, and then, her lips curled back in a roar as she started cursing Sinister in every way she knew how, outright raging against the restraints as she tried to get loose. Somehow.

Sinister glared at her as he called for his Marauders to deal with her, though after the first Marauder got a chunk bitten out of his hand, Sinister called in a second backup that Elin simply hadn't been expecting.

He was a little older than the last time she'd seen him — and definitely taller and broader, more reminiscent of a Marauder — but that was unmistakably Cody in the doorway.


	3. What Did He Do to You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we find out what's been going on with Cody this whole time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING: We as readers and writers know that everyone is alive, but this chapter contains depictions of character deaths, including small children and a suicide. If that's triggering for you, please skip to the end once you reach the section that starts with "Cody was exhausted." You'll wanna read the last few paragraphs of that section for plot, but otherwise, feel free to not indulge. 

_A little over a year ago…._

The last thing Cody remembered, he had been fighting Marauders in the battle against Apocalypse.

It had been going well. He and the other members of the junior squad were holding their own, and he'd just blasted a hole through a Marauder who had tried to pin him down — and then he felt a searing pain in his mind. It felt like his whole head was on fire, and it was somehow even worse than the headaches he'd had when he was first getting his powers — which was impressive, since Cody hadn't thought that was possible.

And then… he must have blacked out, because he didn't remember anything between that moment in the sand in Egypt and now, when he was most definitely _not_ in the sand in Egypt.

His arms were aching from the weight of his body as he hung suspended by shackles around his wrists. He didn't know what he was suspended from, not when there was something wrapped around his eyes and head that blocked out his vision. It was heavy and weighed his head down; his neck was already sore from the weight of it, so Cody knew he'd probably been hanging there for a while, unconscious.

Whatever the thing was on his head, he couldn't shoot through it. He couldn't see through it. The thing kept him blind and without his powers — which was probably the whole point.

Cody frowned and tried to shift the way he was suspended. He reached as far as he could, stretching his back and legs until he could _just_ scrape the floor with his toes. He could take the weight off his arms for just an instant, but it was murder on his back.

And trying to find the beam or ceiling that he was suspended from was no better. He tried to follow the chain around his wrists up, but it was exhausting work for arms that were already tired from holding up his body. And after excruciating effort, he found that he was suspended from a hook in the ceiling.

 _Alright. Okay. I'm pretty screwed here,_ Cody thought to himself, reaching up to grab hold of the chains suspending him for a little leverage before he gave a mighty jerk, trying to dislodge the hook from the ceiling if he could. Or the chains from the hook. One way or another.

He jerked his body and twisted around until he was out of breath and finding it hard to get the oxygen he needed when his arms were twisted up above him.

He was gasping where he was strung up when he heard the scrape of a door opening and a familiar laugh — a light, self-satisfied chuckle.

All at once, there was a metallic snapping noise above Cody's head, and he dropped to the ground. He hadn't been expecting it, and he didn't quite catch himself on his feet, crumpling down instead with numb, heavy arms from being strung up for so long.

He tried to scramble back to his feet, knowing that Sinister was there somewhere — but he didn't know _where_.

"The least you could do is muster up a thank you, my boy," Sinister said, that same light chuckle still echoing the room.

Cody was still panting as he managed to get to his feet, turning toward where he thought the sound of Sinister's voice was coming from. He was tired and sore, blind and restrained, but he still spit out a few incredibly choice words Sinister's way that had her tutting her disappointment an instant before that same white-hot pain he'd felt before, in Egypt, filled his mind.

He cried out as he fell to his knees, gasping in pain as he brought his bound hands to his head, trying to ease the pain somehow with his hands in his exposed hair, but nothing worked until Sinister decided to let it up.

"Now then," Sinister said as Cody gasped, still on his knees and wincing. "Aren't you going to thank me?"

"For what?" Cody spit out at last. "Stringing me up? Kidnapping me?"

"No, my dear boy," Sinister said. "For _rescuing_ you."

Cody glared, but it wasn't as effective when he was hampered by the thing covering his eyes. Instead, he lifted up his shackled hands and let the clank of chains speak volumes as he rattled them. "I feel so very rescued."

There was a moment's pause, and Cody couldn't tell what Sinister was doing for a long moment before she let out a little laugh. "Yes, I see I'll have to be more specific with you. It's a shame you have none of your father's ability to see the broader picture," she said. She rested a hand on Cody's shoulder, and he jerked away at the touch. "Had I left you where you were, you would have died with the others. And I have worked far too hard to lose so much of my research."

Cody didn't even know where to start with that one. The insult to his intelligence, the fact that she was still treating him like a science experiment… But there was one more pressing thing above everything else: "What do you mean? Who — who died?"

Sinister rested her hand on Cody's shoulder again in what probably looked like a consoling gesture if he could have seen her at all. "Your half-sister lost control of the Phoenix," she said in an even tone as Cody felt his throat constrict and his mouth dry out, so much so that he didn't even pull away from Sinister. "She was stopped, of course, or we wouldn't be here now, but I'm sure you know the consequences something like that can have."

Cody shook his head. "I don't believe you."

"No?" All at once, Cody felt his feet leave the ground, and his back hit the wall. A moment later, Sinister had a hold of his hair, pulling his head back so she could whisper in his ear, "No one is coming for you, Cody. Believe what you want, but no one will be valiantly riding to your rescue." She let go of his hair and let him fall to the ground. " _No one_."

Cody felt the familiar panic rising up in his chest — the same panic that had come up when Sinister had almost killed his brother. Twice. Only this time, it was bigger than just his big brother. If what she was saying was true…

"You're lying," Cody said through his teeth.

"Come now, Cody; we're beyond petty accusations," Sinister said. "I haven't said anything to you that wasn't true. And the longer you remain here, the clearer it will be: you are alone."

Cody felt his hands ball up in fists in front of him. His eyes stung, and he closed them, since it wasn't like he could see Sinister anyway. "You're wrong," he said, though not with nearly as much heat as before.

"We both know that's not true," Sinister said. She let out a light laugh before she strode over to where he was to lift his chin, though he couldn't meet her gaze. "Of course, if we're going to be honest with each other, the truth is you aren't _entirely_ alone. You belong to _me_ ; you always have. Just like your father, and his before him, and so on and so on."

Cody jerked away from her, pushing back as best he could to get distance as he scrambled blindly backwards. "Keep your hands off of me," he spit out.

Sinister simply tutted. "You don't understand, do you?" she asked. "I _made_ you. As soon as your father insisted on marrying that _simple_ girl, I had to step in to prevent another mishap like your brother."

" _My brother isn't_ —" Cody suddenly found himself unable to move or speak, cutting off his protests as Sinister continued.

" _I made you_. I ensured that as age claimed your father, there would still be subjects worth studying from his line. You are the best possible specimen from what I had to work with. I _engineered_ you, my dear boy. Whatever illusions you may have had to this point about your existence are nothing; you belong to me. You always _will_."

Cody couldn't move. He couldn't even glare. All he could do was project as loud as he could: _Bite me._

But that was clearly the wrong thing to do, because as soon as he'd started up the projection, Sinister rushed into his mind. It was icy hot where Sinister left her trails, and Cody was gasping as Sinister showed him her own memories of cutting into both of his parents twenty years ago, working to ensure her genetic research went to good use in preventing more human offspring.

And for as terrible as that was — filling his every thought with his own parents' torture until he wasn't aware of anything else — when Sinister finally let up her attack, Cody quickly realized that he wasn't where he'd started.

In fact, he was strapped down to an examination table. The band was gone from around his face, but he couldn't access his beams, so there must have been a dampening field or something.

Whatever the case, Cody knew that he couldn't blast Sinister away from him as she coolly brought over a tool of trays, saying nothing as Cody watched her and felt his heart rate tick up. He couldn't help but remember everything that Sinister had just showed him with his parents, even if he _knew_ that was exactly why she'd showed it to him in the first place.

That was why he wasn't wearing the blinding band anymore. He was sure of it. Sinister wanted him to know what was coming. She wanted him to feel helpless.

Cody closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the examination table, fighting hard not to give in to that feeling of helplessness even as Sinister set him up with an IV that felt cold in his veins. The drug moved quickly through his system with how fast his heart was beating, and he could only hold the glare for so long before he started to relax despite his best efforts.

"This will be so much easier _for you_ if you simply accept your position in life," Sinister told him as he started to drift off. "There is no possibility of escaping your fate. Your only choice now is how long you continue to be stubborn about accepting the truth."

Cody tried his best to glare but ended up falling into unconsciousness despite his best efforts, and Sinister quickly got to work once he was out.

What Cody couldn't have realized was that Sinister had already tried exactly this on Scott over twenty years ago, before Scott knew Annie, when he'd left the X-Men. And it had _worked_. Sinister had been closer than he ever had before breaking Scott's will entirely. Isolating him, keeping him blind, invading his mind, letting him know just how helpless he was — all of these things in concert had _almost_ broken Scott.

Cody was much more reactive, less experienced, and therefore far easier to manipulate. After all, he'd thrown himself into Sinister's grasp for his brother and had broken down the first time he thought Chance was dead as well. He had a weak spot a mile wide, and he made all of his decisions with an impulsive energy that was only going to propel him into trouble if it wasn't curbed.

So, Sinister only had to do what he'd done to break Scott — and Cody would bend to his will much more easily. It was just a matter of time and persistent pressure.

It helped, of course, that what Sinister had said was true; no one would be coming for Cody. The last time Sinister had the boy, he'd gotten enough from him to make a clone — and Chloe had helped him perfect the deception _and_ make his plans for augmentation in the future, even if she didn't understand the implications of her work. The body he left in the sand was not necessarily a viable one, but viability wasn't necessary. All that mattered was that the dead boy looked like Cody Summers — and the X-Men would bury the body and never know the difference.

With Apocalypse gone at last, that meant there was absolutely nothing left to distract Sinister from his work.

* * *

When Cody woke up again, he was back to being blind, though this time, he wasn't suspended from the ceiling. Instead, he was in a bed. A real one.

He started to sit up, but when he tried to move his arms, he realized that one hand was still restrained to the head of the bed — so he could move, but not far.

He frowned as he followed the chain back to the headboard and yanked on it a few times, even planting both feet in the center to pull it, but no dice. He let out a noise of pure frustration before he finally gave up and simply laid back on the bed.

He was sore all over. His arms were killing him from being suspended earlier, and he still felt _off_ from the experimentation. He realized now as he started to get more and more tired that there was a growing wet spot, and his stomach felt cold.

He must have pulled some stitches; he was oozing blood.

Cody started to drift into unconsciousness when Sinister reappeared, tutting at him and generally annoyed with the state of things as she worked quickly to get him stitched back up — though she didn't bother to numb anything when she was so clearly annoyed at having to redo her good work.

When Cody couldn't stop whimpering while Sinister worked — despite his best attempt not to make a noise — Sinister scoffed at him. "See what happens when you misbehave?" she said. "I told you to accept your station, but you seem determined to make things harder on yourself."

"Go to hell," Cody ground out through his teeth.

"Mind your manners," Sinister shot back a moment before she backhanded him hard across the mouth to accentuate the point. As Cody wiped the blood from his split lip with a glare that she couldn't see, Sinister finished putting away her tools and let out another little tutting noise. "You don't seem to understand, my boy. I'm offering you a chance to improve yourself. You could be far more powerful than your father — and accomplish what he never could." She let out a breath as she got to her feet. "We are on the same side, your father and I. I _want_ to see mutantkind reach its full potential as well. Maybe you won't be as blind as he was."

Cody knew she couldn't see him glaring, but he glared anyway, right up until Sinister left. And then he simply slumped back into the pillows of the bed. He was sore. He was tired. He was blind.

But he still wasn't going to let Sinister win. He knew she was peddling crap, and he wasn't going to let her twist him up. He was an X-Man. And no matter what Sinister said, he knew that his family wouldn't let him rot away in this place. Even if _some_ of them were dead… even if his blood family was dead…

Cody pushed that thought aside. No. Even if Sinister wasn't lying about _some_ of his family, he knew the rest wouldn't stop looking for him. Charlie still had _Amy_. And the X-Men would realize he was missing.

Unless they thought he was gone in the Phoenix fire too…

Cody shook his head hard. No, he was sure his family was coming for him.

* * *

Cody was exhausted.

There were several aspects to it, of course. He hadn't eaten much — not when Sinister was mad at him for swearing at her every time she came in the room. Which he did. Colorfully. Just because he knew it made her mad.

But also, he was mentally exhausted. He was blind, restrained, and he had _no_ idea how much time had passed, not when Sinister made it a point to rake through his mind every chance she got.

In the past days — weeks? — he'd watched her kill Chance a dozen times over, only this time, she hadn't let up when he pleaded with her. _You have nothing left to bargain for_ was the message, over and over. _You belong to me._

It wasn't just Chance, either. Sinister showed him his entire family in her clutches at some point or another. Charlie, ten years old, terrified of Remy. Annie, unable to even stand on her own, on the brink of tears as Sinister handed her a baby Charlie.

And then, there was his dad.

Cody had never seen his dad like… that. He was just a little younger than Cody and trapped in Sinister's experiments. He was somewhere around Chance's age and terrified of Sinister when he recognized him for the first time after becoming an X-Man.

And then, just before he met Annie: Scott was restrained, blinded… and completely hopeless.

Cody had never seen his father look so defeated. He wasn't even fighting Sinister, wasn't defending himself at all…

 _I have far more experience in these matters than you, my boy,_ Sinister said, her voice ringing in Cody's mind. _You might resist me for a little while, but you must know now that no one is coming for you. I can be patient; I can wait. But you_ — _you are only causing yourself more pain with every passing_ wasted _day._

"No, I'm a pain to _you_ ," Cody said through his teeth. "Worth it."

Sinister let out a little noise before she projected pain into his mind, and he curled in on himself - again — just trying not to black out at this point. Even small victories like that were a win when she'd had him for this long.

_There's nothing left for you to fight for._

"You're wrong," Cody spit out. "I don't believe you."

It had been his mantra for however long he'd been stuck there. He didn't believe her. He couldn't believe her, because if he did, then that was it. He was stuck.

Sinister rested her hand on Cody's shoulder, but when he shrugged her off, she simply took hold of Cody's hair and forced his head back. "I thought I could spare you this pain, but if you insist on seeing for yourself…"

Cody moved to push her away, to get her voice out of his ear, but before he could do that, Sinister filled his mind with the image of James stepping out of a circle of light wearing his blood-soaked clothes as Death. His claws were already out as he stalked silently toward the hidden-away cabin in the woods…

Cody went pale when he recognized the cabin. That was where the non-combatants had gone. That… that was where his sisters were. Ivy and Willow. His aunts….

The group had seen James coming, and Cody could see his Aunt Theresa clutching Chelsea to her chest as Lisbet, holding John, directed them out the back way. But that just had James picking up speed.

There must have been a dampener in play, because none of the elflings were teleporting them out of danger. Kari must have realized that, because she looked toward the smaller kids and then toward James before she seemed to make up her mind and turned to meet James, her eyes wide and wet.

"James, _please_ don't do this," she pleaded — a moment before James sank his claws into her chest and twisted his wrist.

Cody couldn't catch his breath right for as much as he was panicking as he watched the scene unfold. The older members of the group _tried_ to stop James. His Aunt Rachel shot James until her gun was empty before he gutted her and left her to die. Kaleb managed to wrap James up from behind, his arms and legs around him to try and slow him down while the rest of the group ran into the woods. James stabbed Kaleb by putting his claws through himself as well, and when Kaleb's grip went slack, James tore him off his back and sliced him.

Cody was starting to go numb as he watched the massacre unfold. Most of the people in that group weren't X-Men. The ones that were… they were either brand new to the team or, like Tammy, pregnant. They… they couldn't stop James.

He tried to turn away from the scene or block it out somehow, but he couldn't stop it. Sinister wouldn't let him look away.

James simply set to hunting down the rest of the group from there. And Cody could only watch in horror as one of his oldest friends killed their family one by one.

"No," he breathed out as he watched James stalking toward Chloe, who had Ivy pulled protectively to her chest as she ran. She was obviously trying to find the edge of the dampening field, because she kept tapping the side of her temple, _willing_ the optic blasts to work.

James caught up to her first.

Cody tried to close his eyes or do _something_ to block out the horrifying sound, the almost-gasp when James' claw went through Chloe's chest. But he couldn't. He was stuck. He couldn't stop seeing and hearing _all_ of it.

And when James turned on a hysterical, terrified Ivy…shushing her as he picked her up...

Cody screamed, trying to find _some_ way to block it out. He couldn't breathe; he was going numb. He couldn't… he couldn't stop it.

"Stop," he said, his tone pleading. He was openly crying, not even caring at this point as he watched James stalking toward Charlie.

Charlie — who couldn't even defend herself. Who had fallen to the forest floor sobbing because of the terror and pain she could feel all around herself.

" _Please_ ," Cody gasped as he saw James pull back his fist full of bloody claws.

Cody couldn't turn away. He couldn't stop it, either. He couldn't save any of them. Charlie, Willow, Kade, Malin, Sadie, Chelsea, John….

It was John that finally did it. Not for Cody — by that point, he was beyond the point of screaming. He'd stopped begging Sinister to stop. He was just waiting for this vision to be _over._

But for James, Cody could see the hesitation as he tried to stop himself. And when he couldn't, Cody could see, just for a moment, the anguish in his gaze instead of cold, hard murder.

James was fighting Apocalypse's hold on him, but it was too late. It was _far_ too late.

Cody was shaking his head 'no' as he realized what was about to happen. He watched James look down at his still-bloody claws and then continued to watch as he stumbled back into the dampening field. He saw the decision before James made it.

An instant after James slumped to the ground, the world was dark again. Cody was back in that room with Sinister.

He was numb with shock, and he didn't even flinch away when Sinister brought her hand up to his face. He didn't move as Sinister removed the blinder and let it fall away to show the falsely compassionate expression on her face.

"Why do you think Rachel lost control of the Phoenix?" Sinister asked gently as Cody simply sat there, shaking from head to toe and unable to get a breath right. "She knew the moment they were dead."

Cody didn't respond except to let his shoulders slump the slightest bit. It made sense. Of course it did. And since no one had come to get him…

Sinister made a noise that sounded like sympathy as she lifted Cody's chin even so gently to look him in the eyes. "My dear boy," she said, "you don't have to be alone. I could take this all away. Wouldn't that be so much better?"

Cody didn't answer her. He wasn't even listening to her properly at that point, still too numb, too raw.

Sinister let out a breath and let her shoulders drop as she looked properly apologetic. "I can make all that pain disappear," she said in a consoling tone. "I'd make you stronger, better — more than a Marauder. You would be remade into something truly special." She had his head in her hands to make him look at her, even though he was still in such a state of shock that he wasn't really seeing her properly anyway.

Cody raised his gaze to hers, all raw pain and anguish as he did so. He was silent for a long time before, very slowly, he nodded.


	4. Guinea Pig

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sinister enacts her, well, sinister plans.

_Back to the lab, now._

Elin stopped snarling when she saw Cody approaching her, simply staring up at him in shock. "Cody?"

Cody frowned her way for a moment before the recognition seemed to click, and he froze as well. "Elin?"

She frowned and looked him over more closely. "Has he had you this whole time?" she asked, though her tone wasn't as shocked as it had been to start — more building anger. "We thought you were _dead_. I found your body — we …" She turned toward Sinister and all but snarled through her teeth, doubling down on her rage. " _I'm going to skin you alive when I get loose_."

Sinister waved a hand at her. "If you cannot be civilized, I'll have Cody give you something to _make_ you civilized."

"How _dare you_ talk to me about civility?!" Elin snarled. "You kidnapped him! And planted a fake … you sick, twisted _body snatcher._ "

"Enough." Sinister turned her way with a glare.

"What's wrong? Truth hurt? Sounds like a monster problem to me, you soulless sack of garbage."

Sinister glared at her again before she turned toward Cody. "I told you to take care of her," she said in an annoyed tone.

Cody paused for a moment as he looked Elin's way and then nodded slowly, heading toward one of the tables to load up one of the syringes there, not looking at Elin.

She waited until he was next to her before she looked up at him and said low, "She's got _Chance_ on that table, little brother."

That finally got Cody to look up and meet her gaze, real fear flashing behind his gaze before he looked up at Sinister, and then past her to Chance. "No," he said quietly, his eyes widening.

"Yes," she said just as softly. "And she's going to kill him." Despite her best efforts, that was enough to get her to lose some of her control, and the tears started to flow.

Cody closed his eyes for a moment, his hands closing around the syringe he was holding before he seemed to make a decision and nodded to , to Elin's surprise, instead of blasting Sinister back, he threw out a hand, and Sinister slammed into the wall on the other end of a telekinetic shove.

"Leave my brother alone," Cody said, though it wasn't quite the usual heated, colorful tone that Elin was used to hearing from him when he'd gotten mad in the past. It was still clearly tempered by over a year stuck with Sinister following her orders.

Sinister was positively fuming as she picked herself up, and an instant later, she fired off a blast at Cody that he managed to duck.

"Let me up, Cody," Elin urged, hoping to get moving before Sinister could get to Chance.

Cody moved toward her, but there was still a second's hesitation — and that was all that Sinister needed, this time not bothering with a physical attack and instead sending Cody to his knees with a psychic blast before he could help Elin.

Sinister snapped out her orders for her Marauders to quickly restrain Cody as well. "I'll deal with you later," she promised the younger Summers in a venomous tone that had Cody closing his eyes again, almost wincing.

"What did you do to him?" Elin demanded.

"I've brought him under my careful tutelage," Sinister said. "He doesn't quite have the mind his father does, but he is an excellent specimen, perfect for improvement — and he _is_ learning."

"So you're trying to turn him into a sociopath like you?" she said in disbelief. "He was fine before!"

Sinister shook her head at Elin before she simply turned her back on her and fixed her attention back to Chance. "He asked for my help, dear girl."

"Don't you 'dear girl' me, you bottom feeder," Elin snarled out. "I don't believe that for a second. There's no way — in _any of even your wildest dreams_ — that _any_ Summers would ask for your help."

"I did, though," Cody said quietly.

"Coercion," Elin said decisively, not even waiting to hear anything further.

"Not… really," Cody said.

But Elin wouldn't hear it, shaking her head stubbornly. "No."

Sinister chuckled lightly at her response, though she was only barely listening to the conversation as she started working on Chance. "Stubborn as your father," she said without looking her way, intent on her work. "And as eloquent as your mother."

"Thank you," Elin replied. "Now get your hands off my husband."

"He won't be for much longer," Sinister said. "Really, you should find someone much better suited next time if you plan to continue the family line. I'm getting tired of correcting these mistakes."

"He's not a mistake," she insisted. "But _you_ are. That's why you keep augmenting yourself. You know you're not good enough."

Sinister ignored her as she continued her work, clearly deciding that it wasn't worth the effort of engaging with Elin when she had an experiment to run.

As Sinister kept going, both Elin and Cody were clearly panicking from where they were stuck, though Elin's panic was tempered with far more fury than Cody's. Cody… was almost begging, shoulders slumped, a red tinge around his eyes that Sinister flat out wouldn't let him use as an optic blast, not when he had been controlling Cody's every move for so long.

Sinister didn't pay either of them any more attention other than simply to make sure that Cody couldn't use his powers against her to stop the progress, instead carrying on with whatever it was she was doing to Chance, making little notations as she kept going, muttering to herself the whole while.

It seemed to take _hours_ , and of course, she didn't let Elin or Cody leave the room. It was clear she wanted them both there, and it was also clear that the psychological torture was working. Both of them were panicking and furious, and neither one of them could keep a handle on it as it stretched into hours of surgery.

Finally, Sinister stepped back from Chance and then looked up at Cody. She smirked to herself as she stepped around the table to wash her hands — though Cody's gaze was locked onto Chance. The monitors showed that his brother was still alive. _Still alive_. He was breathing. He was pale and bloody, but he was still alive.

Elin's gaze was locked onto Chance, practically taking every breath with him as she watched him. By that time, she had long since healed from what Sinister had done to her, but she was also incredibly pale — and not from the healing.

As Sinister finished washing her hands, she finally broke her silence, still drying her hands as she turned toward Cody. "You see, my boy," she said in a measured, even tone, "I can make you stronger, faster, more durable — but the one thing I cannot do yet is make you unkillable." She set the towel down and strode toward Cody, stopping in front of him, though instead of glaring at her, Elin watched as Cody dropped his gaze, looking pained.

"Unfortunately, I have found that smaller minds than mine cannot handle being augmented with healing abilities," Sinister continued. "Previous attempts have been… lackluster, to say the least. And after all the work I've put into you, do you really think I would risk losing _your_ mind to the process?"

Cody didn't shrug off the hand that Sinister put on his shoulder, but he did finally look up at her — and then over at Chance as the understanding started to dawn on him. "No," he finally said softly.

Sinister let out a disappointed sigh. "You weren't _listening_ , my boy," Sinister said, and tutted to complete the picture of disappointment on her face. "For as frustrating as your brother's genetic insufficiencies are, it's precisely that family tie that makes him the perfect test subject before we move on to augmenting _you_."

Cody strained against the Marauders, narrowing his eyes, trying to force an optic blast — to do _something_ — but of course, he couldn't get his powers to work. "Let him go," Cody said.

"Really, Cody, I thought we'd moved past backtalk and insolence," Sinister chided.

"He's my _big brother_."

"Yes, I'm aware of the unfortunate connection," Sinister said. "But that, my boy, is exactly why he's still alive."

"You can't … you can't use him for a _guinea pig_ ," Elin said breathlessly.

"Of course I can," Sinister said in an almost irritated tone. "It's the only use he has."

Elin couldn't help but simply start growling at that, once again shaking in rage. "Makes you pretty damn useless then, doesn't it? Now that your boss is gone?"

Sinister shook her head at Elin as she stepped back from Cody to give Elin her full attention. "If you must know, my 'boss', as you so eloquently put it, was never that. I have kept him from gaining power for decades. If you had even an _ounce_ of your brother's intelligence, you would have realized that, you _simple_ girl."

"I was trying to be tactful. I should have called it for what it was. He wasn't your boss, I know," Elin said, and Sinister let out a breath, seemingly pleased that she was paying attention. "He was your _master._ "

Sinister's eyes flashed, and she simply reached out to project psychic pain into Elin's mind. " _Insolent_. You're lucky you and your miserable family still have a _use_."

She had her teeth gritted as she tried not to react with a scream or tears. "So that's your code when you know someone else is right. Dad'll be glad to hear it."

Sinister sneered at her but then shook her head, pointedly turning her attention to her notes as she checked some of the leads and monitors on Chance. "Think what you will. I have work to do."

"Which implies that you don't know what you're doing. If you were any good at this, you wouldn't have to _work_ on it. You'd know," Elin said, still reeling from the psychic hit.

"If you must know, healing powers can be vastly different from one person to the next, down to a cellular level. The difference between your parents is wildly far apart — even though they seem to have identical power sets. With that in mind, even using _you_ as the source, your healing abilities will differ from those of other healing abilities in your own family. That will show up in a transfer of abilities as well. To do this _properly,_ I need to know how wide the gap is. I need to know if this new transfer method is complete or if I need more adjustments before I move on from the _test subject_ to the patient." She paused as she shot a pointed look Cody's way and added. "No reason to do half a job, after all. Trial and error can be frustrating when it's a subject you want to _keep_."

"Is that your way of admitting I'm right?" Elin said, glaring her way. "Is that part of _your_ genetic insufficiency?"

Sinister laughed as she moved back to where Chance was still tied down, smiling to herself when she saw that the incision wounds from the surgery had healed completely, though the older wounds, like the scars from his branding, were still there. "Hardly. Any scientist will tell you that the best of plans will never match up to lab results. There are too many variables."

"Then what makes you think if it works on one that it'd do the same for the other?" Elin asked. "Clearly, they're different enough it's a concern."

Sinister waved a hand her way. "Cody is an excellent test subject. He responds well to every change. In fact, I could augment him right now, but I need to understand how healing, _specifically_ , would affect him first so that I can adjust. Their helixes are incredibly close — not exact, obviously, but close enough that the effects should be the same. I've worked too hard to nurture his mind, temper him, _train him_ … I won't lose him to your more… _animalistic_ tendencies." She shook her head. "My concern is not physical, not entirely. This new method _should_ safeguard against the madness others have succumbed to, but it is still new, untested. I want to see the aftereffects before I allow Cody to undergo the process. Perhaps a slow immersion into healing will prevent mental breaks at the outset. Small injuries to start and work our way up."

By that time, Chance was starting to stir as well, at first unconsciously pulling against the straps the second he felt them and then more urgently. If he hadn't been tied down as tightly as he was, he might have been thrashing. He hadn't even fully opened his eyes yet before he said, "Elin," very softly, and then a bit louder as he finally opened his eyes and looked her way.

"I'm here," she called out.

His gaze found hers in an instant, and he looked scared to death until he saw that Sinister wasn't by Elin, though considering Sinister was taking note of his conscious reactions, that wasn't too helpful either. "You okay?" he asked, obviously trying to get a handle on things — and latching onto his concern for her to push back the rest of it.

"Just peachy," she said, trying not to growl for him. "How bad is it?"

He shook his head. "I dunno, El. Feels weird," he muttered, closing his eyes again for a moment as he tried to get a handle on the panic. Though when he opened his eyes again and saw Cody between the Marauders, his heart rate shot through the roof, and he outright swore — sure at that point that he was dying if he was seeing his dead brother.

"Sinister _kidnapped_ your brother, and the jackass body thief left someone else that looked like him for us," Elin said with a little tremor to her voice. "It's him. I swear it."

Chance stared at Cody in obvious shock as Cody strained against the Marauders again, clearly trying to go see his brother now that he was awake. "Cody?"

"Hey, Chance," Cody said in a quiet tone. "I'm really glad to see you alive."

"Right back at you," Chance almost breathed out, still clearly shocked and _staring_ at Cody.

Sinister was ignoring them entirely as she simply turned the monitors on both Chance and Elin so that they were easily read regardless of who she was working on. "Enough chit-chat," Sinister said. "Who's first? Do I have a noble volunteer, or a selfless one?"

"How about you start with yourself," Elin suggested, though she was a bit more subdued than moments before. She had _been there_ when Chance completely shut down with grief for his brother; seeing this reunion now… she felt like she'd failed them. Failed her husband.

"She's the type," Chance smirked her way, drawing her out of her thoughts, though it was plain to see that both of them were more or less joking with each other just to keep each other sane. "Not exactly noble or selfless, though."

"Ugly. Poor dresser, too," Elin said, straight-faced.

Sinister shook her head at the pair of them. "We'll start with the control, then," she said simply, crossing the span to where Elin was to cut into her — nothing fatal or even too deep, but long and painful all the same — before she stepped back to do the same to Chance.

And while it was clear that Chance was furious over Elin being hurt, he couldn't help but pause when he realized that there was a sort of … buzzing after Sinister cut into him, and he glanced down at his own arm to see that the long cut was starting to knit itself back together.

His eyes widened, and the monitor picked up the very obvious uptick in his heart rate as he glanced up at Elin. "Oh…" he whispered.

Sinister still had her back to Elin as she turned her head Chance's way and mouthed out 'I'm sorry'.

He stared at her for a second, still in a clear state of shock, before he lightly shook his head at her and looked up at Sinister with a solid glare. "Let her go," he demanded. "You got what you wanted—" He tipped his head down as much as he could at his arm. "—so let her go."

Sinister shook her head lightly, looking almost amused. "I'm not nearly finished," she said.

"It worked," Elin growled out. "You should be proud of yourself."

"Yes, it did work. But … there's a slight delay," she said, sounding a bit annoyed. "And if that's the case with something as simple as a cut…"

"You shouldn't be surprised by that if you're as smart as you think you are," Elin very nearly snarled. "No one's been able to do a perfect transfer — and you _know it._ "

"No," Sinister said, sounding almost disappointed. "But it will be informative all the same. I _know_ you are nearly impossible to kill. What is _his_ tipping point?" With that, she reached down and snapped Elin's leg.

There was just a heartbeat of a delay from the snap when it was crystal clear how positively ill the break had made Elin, and after that, the pain rushed in — and she simply couldn't hold back the scream that went with it. Both of the Summers boys were clearly upset. Cody was almost pleading, but Chance was repeating "leave her alone" in an almost frantic tone that fell silent when Sinister crossed over to where he was strapped down.

Sinister was very nearly smirking when she saw Chance try to distance himself and close his eyes, though she completely ignored Elin's shouted "no!" just before she did the same thing to Chance, snapping his leg in the same place and earning a scream as well.

"This isn't for science, it's torture!" Elin snarled out, once again struggling hard to find a way out of it.

"Believe what you will," Sinister said, her gaze on the monitors and a thoughtful frown on her face. She let out a 'hmm' of displeasure when she saw the delay in healing was growing at a nonlinear rate to the severity of the injury. If that continued, she was concerned a more fatal wound wouldn't heal at _all_. And that simply wasn't good enough for her protege.

In a flash, she crossed the room to gather a few more supplies, this time staying by Chance for the setup as all three of the others in the lab looked openly panicked. The surgical tools she was placing out had all of them worried, though she halfway smirked to herself as she loaded up a shot for Chance. If she hadn't been trying to gauge how best to prevent madness, she wouldn't have cared about putting him under, but an open surgery like that would skew her experiment, and she wasn't quite through with it.

"We'll see how long this lasts," she said in an almost interested sort of tone before she pushed the needle into his arm — and it wasn't long at all before he was out again, his panicked heartbeat pushing the drug through faster.

After that, she got down to work. It would be simple enough to remove a portion of his liver, something he could live without, but she was more interested in seeing if it regenerated — and how quickly.

She was almost pleased to see that it did, eventually — though much slower than she would have liked to see, and the drugs were still affecting him — even if they were wearing off fast — whereas they did absolutely nothing for Elin. Still, the fact that there _was_ regenerative healing was a good sign, and she stepped back to let the rest of it heal and to let the drugs work out of his system, since she did need a conscious subject.

"Cody, talk to him," Elin ground out from between clenched teeth.

"What?" Cody stared at her like she'd gone insane.

"Just … don't let him look over here," she said, her voice shaking slightly as Sinister prepared to cut into her for comparison. "Distract him."

Cody frowned at that, but he wasn't about to argue. It was clear when Chance started to come out of the drugs that he was hurting and in a bad way mentally, almost shaking, scared out of his mind, and still half-drugged. Elin, for her part, managed not to scream, but she was beyond words as she healed after Sinister was done — so she'd been right to ask Cody to step in.

The younger Summers boy took a deep breath, clearly trying to think of something to _say,_ especially when conversation hadn't really been something he'd _done_ for well over a year. "Right. So, I… Chance…. if I come …. If I get home …" He paused, this time because 'home' hadn't been a consideration for so long that it felt weird to think about. "If I get home… and find out you and Elin had, like, a kid or something…." When that got a look of disbelief out of _both_ Elin and Chance, he figured that was a good distraction, so he nodded to himself and kept going, gaining speed as he did so. "I mean... you probably had twins, right? That's just… it's got to be a thing. Just because…. I'd miss _two_ kids, right? That's just how this works."

"Cody," Chance muttered out, lightly shaking his head.

"I get it. I do," Cody continued. "You thought I was dead…" He bit his lip and closed his eyes before he forced himself to keep going. "But when we get home, I need to meet them. One of each, right? Cutest kids ever. Total flirts..."

Elin blushed deeply for just an instant and was openly staring at him, no comment at all that she could come up with to go with the pure disbelief her expression was so plainly conveying.

But Cody looked almost sheepish. "You didn't specify a topic, and I just… panicked?"

"Oh my God, Cody ….that's just not … crap."

"I feel like it's a legitimate question, though; I mean... I've been gone long enough... and neither of you two is patient, and you _carry on_ like you're … well. _Your_ parents, sis. Or the Wagners."

"Could you just ... _stop!_ " Elin said finally. "You … are putting images in my head that will never go away!"

"Images of tiny, tiny Chances? Because…" Cody grinned at her.

"Not what I meant," Elin said, closing her eyes tightly.

"Oh, so tiny _yous_."

" _Cody_."

"Now _there's_ a pretty picture," Chance said softly, and Cody tipped his head to his brother wordlessly, but with a look that clearly said 'see?' And Cody looked outright relieved that it was working, even if it _had_ been a pure word vomit of panic on his part.

"You're … _ugh._ So much like your mother, Cody," Elin said.

Cody grinned at that. "Yeah, well. Good genetics."

Sinister had been making notes, not necessarily ignoring the three of them, since, after all, Elin knew best how to deal with healing, and Sinister was noting the coping methods that Elin suggested. But as the conversation wore on, Sinister fell into a deep glare and finally snapped Cody's way at that last comment, then hit him hard enough with a psychic wave that he was halfway bent over and whimpering before she turned back to Elin. "We'll just count ourselves lucky there _are_ no such mutts," she spit out.

"It's a little early to tell, don't you think?" Elin snarled her way, not thinking of what she was actually saying.

"I will _not_ allow that to happen, young lady," Sinister told her with narrowed eyes and a venomous tone. "When we're through here, I'll make doubly sure of _that_ as well."

Elin glared up at her, but beyond that, she kept her comments to herself, feeling guilty for even trying to shove that particular subject in Sinister's face.

 _I won't let her,_ Elin heard suddenly, in Cody's voice.

She looked his way but didn't project to him, more than a little paranoid that Sinister would be listening.

But Sinister was back to ignoring the three of them as she worked, studying the monitors and information coming in as well as making an inspection of both Elin and Chance as she frowned to herself and thought it over.

"What's wrong? Your curve not what you were hoping for?" Elin said in as venomous a tone as she could manage. "You must be missing something _major._ "

Sinister glared Elin's way and stalked over to her, simply to slice open a major artery and watch with an almost disinterested expression as she bled out. "Mmm," she said thoughtfully, waiting until Elin had healed before she crossed the room to Chance.

Elin started to shake her head slowly, even before Sinister picked up the scalpel. "No," she muttered as loudly as she was able. "Please don't … he needs to _refuel_."

Sinister waved a hand at her. "When I'm through," she said.

Chance was plainly terrified as Sinister approached, though his gaze was back to Elin's even as his chest heaved from trying to keep from panicking. 'Don't watch,' he mouthed to her an instant before Sinister cut into him, letting him bleed out as she watched the monitors and looked annoyed when it wasn't apparent he was bouncing back like Elin had.

But by that time, Elin wasn't waiting to see if he was coming back or not before she completely began to come unglued, clearly panicking and once again fighting to get free as she tried to call out to get a response from Chance with her hands balled up into fists. "Please, don't," she was saying through tears.

"Elin, come on," Cody said, his own voice strained and clearly terrified too. " _Focus_."

But there was simply no stopping the panic Elin was feeling, and she was still falling apart for several long minutes, even moreso when Sinister let out a sigh that wasn't disappointed in the least, shaking her head as she made a few notations and muttered a quiet, "Well, that is what tests are for," clearly moving on from that experiment to the next.

That was when Cody started to lose it too, slumping so badly that the Marauders were the only thing keeping him upright, pure terror apparent in his gaze — right up until the moment when, finally, Chance took a breath, and Elin fell apart again, this time in pure relief.

"El?" Chance muttered after a moment, sounding concerned for her as he opened his eyes to find her crying across the room.

But while Elin was gasping in sobs, Sinister looked smug again, writing a few notes to herself at the table before gathering her notes.

A pair of Marauders arrived at her orders to remove Chance and Elin, dragging each of them back to a cell, though while Elin was simply thrown in, the Marauder holding Chance wasn't nearly so kind, making sure to drag the still healing boy along and positively pitch him, hard enough that when he hit the wall, it was clear _several_ things had broken with the collision.

Elin was torn — the desire to make sure Chance was alright was very nearly overridden by her desire to cut large chunks out of the Marauder — but … the look on Chance's face was more than enough to tip over her concern. "You're a dead man," Elin growled out toward the Marauder as she made her way over to Chance to try and help him. "Where does it hurt?"

He still had his eyes closed and was taking very shallow breaths when she got there, and it was all he could do to gesture with one hand to more or less his left side before he grabbed a hold of her arm, trying to hold on and ignore the fact that he was hurting. The truth was that both of them were just barely hanging onto each other to keep from losing it altogether.

She quickly shifted her position and slid over so that he could lay his head down in her lap and she could still hold his hand. She rested her free hand on his chest — lightly — afraid she'd jostle something to make it hurt more, and when she couldn't think of anything else to _say_ to him that he didn't already know … she very quietly just started singing under her breath to him.

But of course, the lyrics were quickly changed when a few of the Marauders ambled by to peek in on them, and the little love song she was singing switched over to threats and detailed accounts of what she _wanted_ to do to them, not that Chance knew what she was saying. But as soon as they'd passed, she went right back to her song, the way it was supposed to be, while she slowly ran her fingers through his hair.

" _Tusen löften svor vi varann, och tusen löften ska vi hålla än. Vår kärlek varar än till solen går upp, går upp vid midnattsväkten."_

It was apparent that it was helping, though, and after a long moment, Chance finally started to relax and let out a little breath. "I've got to learn Swedish," he muttered.

She couldn't help but smile at that but shook her head at him and ran her fingers through his hair. "Really? That's what you're concerned with right now?" she asked.

He smirked quietly, resting his head against her. "I mean… you've got a killer singing voice, El. Kinda want to return the favor," he whispered.

"I don't care if you ever learn a word," she told him quietly.

"Yeah, but I'd have you as a teacher, so…" He trailed off, winced, and resettled. "I'm sorry you got sucked into this. Viper's a bitch. I'm so sorry."

Elin paused, her hand stilling halfway through his hair. It was clear something was off with that, but she didn't know exactly how he'd gone off track. Not when Sinister had _always_ been the boogeyman in the Summers' closet. "As true as that is … I can't blame her for that today," Elin said slowly, watching him as she tried to gauge what had gone wrong. "Look around, Chance; we're not anywhere close to Madripoor. This is _Victorian_. And _Sinister_. Though I'd rather it was Viper right now, to be perfectly honest."

"Right." Chance blinked and shook his head hard, frowning when he saw a Marauder down the hall. "Sorry, it's… I guess it's blurring together." He reached up and rubbed a spot in the center of his forehead. "Almost get murdered so many times it's routine, I guess," he said absently, obviously _trying_ to ground himself again.

"Hey. All you need to do right now is breathe and try to focus on not freaking out," Elin said. "Better cell mates than what you had with Viper … I hope."

"Um, yeah. I'll take you over bottle blonde every day," Chance agreed with a small smirk.

"Good," she said, reaching down to cover his hand with hers and wondering if he was going to notice the matching rings and get a little reminder or if he was really just mixed up. She wouldn't have been surprised at all if he was simply caught in a trauma response, considering the anxiety she _still_ smelled on him every time he was in a medical setup ever since Jamie and Viper had grabbed him. She hoped whatever was going on was as simple as that, considering what Sinister was using Chance as a guinea pig _for_. "I'm going to hold you to that."

Chance nodded and relaxed into her. "We've gotta get out of here, El. Historically, this ends badly."

"We do," she agreed. "You got a hot date or are you just worried about a little freak time in the lab?"

"Ha ha you're hilarious," Chance said, rolling his eyes.

"I am. Answer the question, Mr. Summers," she said, sure that at least it would distract him. It always did. And it might help her gauge where he was, mentally.

"Well yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm freaked out about the lab, okay? A few seconds ago, I was living what happened with Viper, so you can imagine how that's playing in my head right now."

"Do you want me to help ease your mind or …"

"I feel like I should be easing yours but… okay…"

She shook her head, then shifted slightly to give him a very quick kiss. "I'm healed. No fuss, no muss. No … extreme case of Summers drama. Yet."

He couldn't help but smirk at her for that one. "Yet."

"It's still early," she said with a shrug. "And you're all … stressed out."

"Sorry." He leaned into her again.

"I thought you got over the Canadian business?" Elin teased.

He burst into a laugh. "I guess it got ingrained in me somehow. Comes out when evil women drag me to their lairs."

"Oh. Do I need to be evil now?" she said with a grin.

"If you want the Canadian me, apparently," he teased right back.

"Do _you_ want the Canadian in you?"

He paused, then started to smirk. "Depends on the quality of your lair."

She looked around their current cell with a critical eye, frowning to herself. "If it was me picking the curtains, I'd _probably_ have a better view to torture you with. Something with water and snow … and I'd keep your shoes from you so you couldn't escape."

"Sounds right. Scary Elin," he said, nodding along.

"What about you? What's your evil lair?" she asked, trying to get him distracted from the misery he'd been wallowing in already.

"Oh, well if it's _you_ , then I start with a blonde dye job," he teased.

"For you or me?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Continue. Peroxide torture — check."

"And every horrible, sexist, no-good b-rated romance or chick power movie written by dudes with a thing for their actresses."

"So … you want me dressed in _trash_?"

"You wanted to take my shoes away."

"I know … I just didn't realize that was your _kink_."

" _El_." He started laughing harder. "The trashy movies are to break you down, you dork."

"Oh, I thought you were _dressing me_ like the trashy movies. My bad."

"Don't have to play dress up, El. Show up in the uniform; you look great in it."

"Ah. Okay … that sounds more like it. A kink for _authority figures_. Got it. Check."

"Mmhmm that's me to a tee. Boss me around, El," he said, clearly enjoying himself now.

"You're making me wonder how far I can push it," she teased. "What's too far? I'll stop before then. _Probably_."

"If you start sounding like my dad, that's my limit."

"I don't think that's possible," she said.

" _Authority figures_ ," Chance whispered back.

"Don't make me hold you down," she replied, straight-faced.

"I'll just look very sad and vanquished and pathetic."

"So it'd make you sad if I pinned you and tried to force you into relaxing?"

"...no, but I'd fake it for the sake of the lair joke."

"Can I pin you down like this? Just … hold you down with one hand?" Elin said, shifting her hand over his chest while he still had his head in her lap.

He pulled off an almost-believable wide-eyed look. "Oh no!"

"That's what I thought. So, Sweet Summers … about that hot date." She shifted so she was looking directly down at him. "Start talking."

**Translation from Swedish song:**

We swore a thousand promises to each other, and we will keep a thousand promises. Our love will last until the sun goes up, goes up at midnight.


	5. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the older X-Men find their missing members, thanks to a certain semi-sane Demiurge.

Teddy had just gotten back from taking Sammy shopping ahead of a date night, so he was in a good mood and not at all prepared to come home to find that Billy was a few inches off the ground and headed for the door.

"Woah, hey, sweetheart, we talked about this," Teddy said, rushing over to him with wide eyes. "Not by yourself. Come on, what's going on?"

Billy paused and looked Teddy's way, and for a moment, Teddy could only see anger in his expression before he let his shoulders drop. "Right. We ... we need to talk to Logan."

"What's going on?"

"Sinister," Billy said, already sweeping down the hall in the opposite direction he'd been floating.

Teddy looked toward Sammy for a moment, and she simply nodded up at him and gave his hand a little squeeze. "Go take care of Daddy," she told him.

He smiled at her for that one and then ran a hand over her hair and kissed the top of her head before he took off after Billy, catching up to him to pull him back down to ground level and hold his hand.

Logan and James were working in the garage together — a new project that the two of them had come up with and something that James was looking forward to. Not a Harley but a heavy duty dirt bike — and the pair of them were making good progress between them.

"Logan, I need to borrow you," Billy said in a voice that echoed with the Demiurge power.

"Alright," Logan said before he set his tools down. "Just me? Seems a lil' bit over the top if you're working on picking out Teddy's birthday present."

Billy shook his head, looking entirely serious. "No. I saw Sinister. And this time…" He shook his head. "We need to get him out of Re-" He frowned. "Jana."

"I'm going too," James said, getting to his feet to join him.

Billy paused to consider James for a long moment, clearly running through the possible dangers, before he nodded. "Alright."

The two of them headed out together to get out of the greasy clothes and, naturally, ended up picking up K on their way, who didn't even ask what the task was before she decided to join them. The three of them found Billy outside of the locker room as soon as they were dressed and ready to go.

"I have to warn you," Billy said, looking between the three of them. "You _can't_ kill Sinister until I say so. I think I can get him out of Jana, but I want to get him out of anyone else too, and I need to be able to follow the threads while he's alive for the spell to work."

"No one will kill her," Logan said, even as K and James shared a wordless look.

"She's experimenting on Elin and Chance right now," Billy warned. "And you _can't_. Kill. Her. Not until I say so."

" _Okay_ ," K said. "We won't."

"Don't look at me," James said, holding both hands up. "I just want to hit her."

Billy nodded to himself before he led the way to the jet, still floating a few inches off the ground and looking murderous.

"Gonna be honest here," Teddy muttered to Logan as they loaded up, "I'm really hoping this is a false alarm. That creep shouldn't get to touch any of the kids."

"If it is, I'll buy him breakfast for his concern," Logan told him. "Either way, I'm not gonna stop encouragin' him to step in if it's got him riled."

Teddy smirked at that and nodded before he climbed into the jet and sat down next to Billy, covering Billy's hands with his as Billy seemed to focus on whatever it was he'd seen happening, his foot tapping impatiently as it was clear he wanted to _fix_ it.

They touched down at last not too terribly far from where Chance and Elin had gone for their anniversary — which, considering the fact that K hadn't told anyone where the cabin was, had her a bit on edge as they headed toward where Billy was pointing them.

She and Logan shared a look, seeing as they weren't aware of anything being anywhere near this particular spot. Unless it was new. Or mobile. Or … _something_.

But sure enough, they had nearly reached a small clearing when they spotted the first Marauder, and Billy looked both relieved and furious at being proven right. He reached out a hand, the Marauder seemed to simply shrivel, and he turned to face the others from a much higher standpoint than he'd been a second ago.

"We have to move _fast_ ," he told the group, simply flying forward and trusting the rest of them to follow him.

The three ferals broke into a run together, all of them keeping pace as Teddy joined Billy flying toward the other side of the clearing. They weren't at all surprised to find an old house there, somehow, or to find the Marauders there to block their path, but with the team they had, Marauders weren't going to be a problem; it was their _boss_ they were more worried about getting to.

It helped that they had Billy acting as a beacon to where Sinister was set up and working, though K outpaced even the angry Demiurge in a flash when they were nearly there and a scream echoed the halls. She climbed over Marauders like they were a step ladder to get there quicker, and then, she had to let out a growl when she saw the state of things.

There were three examination tables. Elin was in the middle, Chance on one side, and on the other was _Cody._ All three were very badly used, battered and beaten — Elin's arm was at the completely wrong angle to her body and accounted for the scream — and Sinister was just administering some kind of sedative to Cody.

K stared openly as one of the Marauders inside the lab reached over and grabbed a hold of her arm, though on seeing Cody move, she let out a low growl and turned to hack off the arm of the guy holding her. " _You've had him this whole time?_ " K snarled as she unintentionally squared up with the creep and started moving forward low and quick.

Sinister looked up at K and let out a sound of pure annoyance as she reached out a hand to telekinetically pick K up and throw her back, but when Sinister heard Logan, Teddy, and James on their way as well, she decided it was time to end the experiment for the time being, and she glanced up at K with a wicked, vindictive smile.

Elin was already shaking her head before Sinister reached down to where Chance was closing his eyes against whatever Sinister had in mind as a parting — and possibly fatal — blow. There was a snapping sound and a loud scream that choked off suddenly when Sinister left a scalpel dead center in Chance's heart.

Elin snarled out wordlessly, and K made a dash for Sinister, though she was careful not to use her claws. She led with a hard right that carried all of her momentum, and the crack of Jana's jaw was audible even down the hall where the guys were bringing up the rear.

"I said _wait_ ," Billy called out as he rushed forward, eyes wide, muttering magic that kept Sinister from fighting back or teleporting away.

"I'm just saying hello," K snarled out.

James and Logan followed Billy in — bloodied and beaten halfway down — and Logan let out a breath when he saw K was only pounding on Sinister, though he redirected himself and started to slash through the restraints holding Elin first. K adjusted her grip on Sinister as soon as it was clear Sinister was not only punch-drunk but not fighting back either, too stunned by the beating to do so. With one more hit, Sinister was unconscious.

James, meanwhile, hadn't looked to see who was on the third table and instead had tried to get right to work on rescuing his brother-in-law. It wasn't until he heard a sort of mumbled whimper that he paused while he tried to stop the bleeding on Chance and looked up to see Cody. And when he did, he let loose a low, echoing growl.

"Take care of them," Billy called out before he rushed around to where K was and put both hands out in front of him, his eyes and hands both glowing for a moment before the barest wisps of _something_ started to drift out of Jana's temple, swirling beside them and starting to coalesce into something solid. "You can stab this one when I form him, okay? He won't have any powers. But I have to collect some of the remnants from anyone else he may have left failsafes in."

Logan had cut Cody loose, and then after he took a moment to process that it _was Cody_ , he carefully checked him over and started trying to rouse him. The sedative was fast-acting, so it took some time, but thankfully, Cody hadn't gotten much of it in his system before Logan had cut him free. When Cody could get upright, both he and Logan made their way over to help Chance — with Cody wordlessly dragging up the supplies they needed.

"I can hold onto Sinister," James said, stepping back from Chance, seeing as Cody seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

"Alright, good," Billy said. "Don't stab him until I'm _done_."

"Don't worry," James said as he twisted the newly forming Sinister up into what looked to be a very painful position. "I want a little time with him before he dies."

Billy just nodded but didn't say much else, simply focused on getting the rest of Sinister out of Jana. The diamond in the center of Jana's forehead finally stopped glowing, and Billy leaned back, looking exhausted as Jana crumpled, unconscious — and the new Sinister was still out as well.

"Let's get them back to the jet," Billy said James' way. "Teddy and I can talk Jana down if she wakes up and freaks out. Which she will — freak out, that is."

James nodded his agreement, and in a flash of light, Billy had transported the five of them to the jet, leaving Logan and K to deal with Elin and the Summers boys.

"Typical," Logan said, half to himself as his hands floated across the wounds to clean them up so they could see what needed to be done. "Don't we need stitches?" he asked.

Cody shook his head quietly as he gently pulled apart the wound to get the scalpel out. "No, we don't. He'll heal."

The two ferals shared a look. "What are you talking about, sweetheart?" K asked, since clearly, Elin wasn't in any shape to answer — quietly letting the tears run down her cheeks as she whispered to Chance to hang in there.

Cody paused what he was doing to look up at K and swallowed hard before he went back to gently extracting the knife. "She augmented him with Elin's healing," he explained, still in that same soft voice that wasn't anything like his usual brashness. "It… She didn't have the time to do it to me, I don't think. I don't feel any different … and she didn't do any of the experiments that she did on them... I don't know why she didn't … that's what she was working up to."

Logan swore outright and started to patch up the major injuries. "When did he do this?" he asked, almost glaring at him. "And how did he pull it off?"

"She tested it on Chance yesterday," Cody said. "It's a new transfer method. She… she wanted a test subject…"

K shook her head at that. "Come on, let's get you to the jet. Leave them alone to handle this." She gave Elin a look. "Pull it together, sweets. He's going to need you."

Cody looked up at K and frowned, but he didn't offer a word of argument. "Okay."

K put her arm around Cody and slowly led him off. "Your father is going to be so happy to see you," K told him.

"He's alive too?" he asked.

K stopped, and the growl slipped out before she could even begin to stop it. "Cody, honey, the only one that we thought we lost in that fight was you."

Cody stared at her in obvious shock. "...what?"

"Your parents were devastated."

"I ... I thought Rachel…."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Rachel _nearly_ killed James. And scared the hell out of herself. But she's alive and well."

"And what about Chloe? And Charlie — and — and John?" Cody asked, looking openly upset.

K stopped and gave him a hug. "Sweetheart, everyone is alive and well. But you've missed so much."

He seemed totally taken aback by the hug before he relaxed into it and rested his forehead on her shoulder. " _I saw it_ ," he said quietly.

"Sinister lied to you," K told him just as quietly. "They're all safe."

He let his shoulders drop even further as he simply hugged her a little tighter. "I want to go home," he said in a very small voice. It was the first request he'd made for himself since the whole ordeal started, and he could barely even whisper it.

She nodded at that. "That's the plan," she promised, and when the hug was over, she kept one arm around him all the way to the jet. She did, however, make sure to send a quick text back to the mansion. _Good news incoming. Try not to die._

* * *

Meanwhile, Logan was sitting with Elin as they waited for Chance to heal, one hand around her shoulders with her head under his chin as he pulled her tight.

"Be ready to open those restraints," Logan said quietly as he gave her a little squeeze. "Wait until the initial shock is over."

It was solid advice, too, because it was clear when Chance woke up that he was hurting and panicked, looking somewhere beyond petrified when his eyes flew open.

"Hey, look at me," Logan told him, one hand on his shoulder as he tried to get him to focus. "Right here, Chance. You're safe. We're here. We're goin' home. But you gotta focus on something, son."

It was obvious Chance was struggling to focus, but listening to Logan clearly helped, and he did his best to hold Logan's gaze, his breathing shallow, though he was trying to control it.

"Just slow it down," Logan said. "You know how."

Chance nodded and closed his eyes, his hands clenched in fists as he slowed his breathing down.

Elin covered one of his hands with hers as she started to release the restraints — after getting a little nod from her father, of course. "Please don't jostle yourself," she said quietly.

"Alright," Chance said quietly, his eyes still screwed shut.

"Don't focus on what you're feeling," Logan said evenly. "Pick something else and push everything else to the side."

"I'm trying."

Logan gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I know."

Finally, it seemed like Chance was starting to get a handle on the panic, at least — but that slipped away as soon as they started to move him. Everything shifted, and even breathing hurt. He turned green, almost blindly lashing out until Elin grabbed his arm to hold his hand. "I'm right here," she told him.

Logan was quick to settle him back down and began to reevaluate him. "Come on, you got there once, you can do it again." He wasn't looking at Chance, though, instead scanning through the bottles of meds that Sinister had nearby, looking for something strong enough to help but not so strong as to do more damage.

"I can't," Chance said, truly panicking and starting to cry, which wasn't helping the fact that breathing hurt.

"Sure you can," Logan said. "If I can do it, you can do it. Oughta be a cakewalk."

"I can't — I can't get it," Chance said, his pitch rising, truly in danger of losing it when the only thing he could think about was how much he _hurt._

Logan looked over to Elin, not that she needed much prompting before she leaned forward and kissed him quickly — then started just giving him little kisses between her words. "I know you can. We're on our way out of this hellhole. You can't quit on me now, sweet Summers."

Chance was obviously still panicked, but on the other hand, he had started to relax a bit with Elin there. Every time he would start to hyperventilate again, Elin would kiss him and give him reassurances. When he had calmed down at least enough to breathe, he latched onto Elin as much as he could without moving the broken pelvis that Sinister had left him with.

Logan sat back and let them work on his focus for a long moment, knowing that Chance had to heal up the bones at least a little before they tried to move him again. It took a lot longer than it would have for Elin or Logan, but when it finally stopped hurting to breathe, it was obvious. Chance dropped his shoulders and then finally let out all his breath into Elin, almost hiding his face in her side in pure relief that he could breathe again as he kept hanging onto her tightly.

Logan let out a sigh of relief on seeing that at least he could move that much. "Without us doing anything to help, can you pick up your hips?"

Chance finally picked his head up to look at Logan and seemed to frown for a moment before he very slowly nodded and tried to move again, wincing badly but able to move all the same.

Logan nodded at that and pressed on Chance's shoulder to keep him down. "Take a few more minutes."

"Where's Cody?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

"On the plane with K," Logan said.

"Good," Chance said with a little nod, closing his eyes again and relaxing flat, clearly exhausted.

"When the buzzing stops, _deep_ , we'll move you," Logan told him. "Probably still gonna hurt, but not anywhere near what it was."

"Okay," Chance said, nodding slowly. "Okay. Good."

While Chance rested, Logan gathered up whatever medical supplies that they might need should something break open on the way to the jet. It wasn't that he didn't think Chance was healed; he just didn't have a lot of faith in how well it would _stay_ healed or how complete that healing was.

And even if the worst of it was holding, the massive collection of minor injuries could be enough to put Chance in a bad way unless he managed to refuel. He _needed_ to get the kid some food. And water. But that wasn't going to happen until they were in the jet.

Logan kept his focus on watching the area around them and listening to Chance's breathing as a guideline on where he was in his healing process. He didn't realize that he'd rested a hand on Chance's shoulder again as he watched the area around them, waiting to get moving.

Chance finally seemed to be at least in the realm of alright when he let out a small breath. "Dad," he said quietly to get Logan's attention. "It's okay. I'm okay."

"Yeah, just waitin' a little more to make sure before we go."

"Sorry I freaked out on you."

"You're fine," Logan said.

Chance nodded and then squeezed Elin's hand once. "You said Cody's with K… we should … I want to make sure he's okay."

"How's the buzzin'?" Logan asked, already readying to pull Chance up or carry him if need be.

"I mean, it's still everywhere, but it's not so…" Chance trailed off and shook his head.

"Stuff on the surface is to be expected," Logan said. "If Sinister did a decent job on you, the worst stuff'll take care of itself first. And it _looks_ like it has."

He nodded slowly. "She was trying to do it right so she could copy it with Cody. Just before you got here, she … she was saying she'd do one more round of comparisons once Cody's procedure was done and then… she'd drop the dead weight."

"We'll worry about that later," Logan said as he offered Chance a hand up and gently pulled him upright. "Keep your focus now. Don't let it slip. And don't worry about leaning on me too much. I'm used to it."

Chance looked pale as he nodded, though he was hanging onto Logan hard. "Just thinking 'bout El," he said quietly.

"Good anchor," Logan muttered, making sure that Chance was holding on solidly before he winked at Elin as she took up Chance's opposite side, and the three of them started moving forward.


	6. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone is home... safe but not necessarily sound.

When they got back to the jet, slowly, Jana was still unconscious, and the new Sinister was well and truly trussed up, with James watching him for even the slightest twitch in his sleep. But when Cody saw the three of them, he rushed over, breaking away from K for a moment but then stopping short, still looking concerned but glancing back at K, obviously waiting for a signal or direction.

"What do you need?" he asked in almost a breath, his eyes wide.

"For you to sit down. You can make sure your brother gets some food and water in him so he can heal right, if you need a project," Logan said.

Cody nodded at that and quickly moved to grab whatever was in the cabinets in the jet, clearly upset but not really saying much as Elin and Logan finally got Chance settled and Logan headed for the cockpit.

"I'm sorry, Elin," Billy said quietly as she sat down near him and Teddy. "I… I got there before he could kill Chance, but I'm sorry you three had to go through all that."

"I'm okay," Elin said. "It's fine. We're out. _Thank you._ "

Billy crossed over to where she was and pulled her into a tight hug. "He's gonna be okay," he whispered to her. "Cody too. I promise."

Elin pulled him tighter and curled into the hug, but didn't say more than that — a little too shell-shocked herself for all that had happened.

As Logan got them in the air and headed back home, Cody handed Elin literally all of the food he'd found before he dropped into the seat next to K and tipped his head back to rest it against the wall of the jet behind him. He was pretty beaten down too, but he was obviously more worried about Chance than anything else.

"Cody," K said gently. "What kind of candy bar do you want?"

"I'm alright; Chance needs the fuel," he said without opening his eyes, still leaning back.

"Chance is going to start with the jerky," K said, glancing toward Chance to make sure he did just that. "We won't be in the air long enough for him to clear it all out, and I know he'd share. This one time. So pick."

"I don't know. I'll eat whatever you pick," Cody said tiredly.

She shook her head. "I can't remember what you like. I'm old."

He cracked one eye open and watched her for a moment before he sat up a little straighter and seemed to think about it. "I guess a Snickers bar would be nice," he said after far too long a pause.

She gave him a little smile as Chance handed one to him. "Right. Helps with the cranky."

He smirked quietly at that and nodded, falling silent as he watched Chance and Elin together and munched on the Snickers bar. "How'd you find us?" he asked at last in that same sort of quiet tone, like he was treading lightly on every word.

"Billy," K told him.

"He didn't see me before," Cody said.

"He probably thought you were in a different reality before," K pointed out. "We all thought you were gone to us."

"I was," he said simply, looking down at his hands.

She reached out and offered him her hand. "I'm really glad you're here. I missed watching you out-shoot Chance."

He rested his hand on top of hers. "I haven't shot a gun in over a year," he told her.

"So you think he's got a prayer of catching up, then?" K asked, her head tipped to the side slightly.

"Yeah, probably," he said.

"What did Sinister do to you?" K asked, giving his hand a little squeeze.

Cody took a deep breath and held it before he let go of the Snickers wrapper he was holding, though it stayed in the air. _Augmentation_ , he projected to her.

She stared back at him for a long moment. _You can just tell me like this if you want._

He nodded at that and let his shoulders drop. _I'm stronger, too. And I'm pretty good in a medical suite._

 _We won't ask you to do that until you finish your residency_ , K replied.

 _Alright,_ he said.

 _If you_ want _to do that, of course._

 _I'll do it,_ he said with a nod. _That's fine._

 _I'm not telling you to, Cody. I'm perfectly happy if you'd like to just be on the staff, or fix cars, or become a baker like your mother. Or … bartend at a biker bar or something. Whatever makes_ you _happy._

Cody frowned at her for a long moment. _I don't really… know…_

_It's a good thing you're so young, then. You have time to figure it out._

Cody simply nodded with a little frown as he caught the wrapper and pocketed it. _Okay._

K watched the motion, frowning deeper as she realized just how much Sinister had chipped away at Cody's manic energy. _What, are you eighty suddenly?_

_What?_

_You're traumatized. I get that. But you've always needed prompting for little things like the wrapper. You were folding them into origami last time I saw you._

He frowned for a moment and almost unconsciously reached for his pocket. _I don't really do that,_ he said. _It's pointless._

_It's artistic and brings beauty and whimsy into the world. But … that's between you and I._

He bit his lip and nodded. _Okay._

She frowned at that but filed it away to share when they got back, which … wouldn't take very long, all things considered. She also made sure to send another text. _I'm going to need to talk to you right away. Before anything else._

 _What's going on?_ Scott replied.

_We found someone that was very lost._

_I heard Billy took the three of you. Another dimensional save?_

_No. This dimension. Did you take that Xanax?_

_K, I've already got Annie on me._

_I'm not telling you anything unless I know you're not going to have another heart attack._

_I'm fine. I'm sitting down._

She let out a breath and gave Cody's hand a squeeze before she got up and made the phone call. "You know that even in a text I can tell when you're lying, right? You're just that bad."

"You're hilarious," Scott shot back in lieu of a greeting. "Are you going to tell me what's happening or not?"

"That's why I'm calling. It's not really a text kind of thing," K said, glancing across the jet to Cody. "We have Sinister, first of all. Billy got him separated from Jana — who we also have, but there's more." She took a deep breath and watched the two Summers boys for a long moment before she let her voice drop quieter. "Cody's with us."

There was a long pause. "What are you talking about?" Scott asked, sounding almost dazed.

"Scott, stay with me," K said. "We have Cody. He's very much alive. Sinister's had him this whole time. Working him over."

" _What_."

"I'm just …" She let out her breath. "... he's physically fine. But he's not himself. And I need you to be prepared."

"Yeah," Scott said, clearly struggling to find the words for the situation. "If he's been with Sinister… yeah…"

"I'm sorry to spring it on you like this, I am," K said. "But he can't … seem to make any decisions, and all of the fight is just … gone."

"And you're bringing Sinister back to take his head off," Scott said in a tone that wasn't a question.

"Yes," K said. "Once Billy's made sure there isn't anything left behind. Yes."

"Alright," Scott said slowly. "I'll … meet you in the hangar."

"Take your pill, Scott. Or I'm calling Annie next."

"K, I swear, I'm not going to have a heart attack," he promised.

"Good. Because we have _both_ of your boys on board."

"I thought Chance was with Elin."

She made a little noise. "He was. And he had them too."

"What? Why?" Scott asked, jumping straight to concern again.

She ran a hand over her face and quickly explained what Cody had told her and how, but then was sure to finish by letting him know that both of them were physically fine. Both of them.

Scott was quiet for a long time before he finally let out a breath that she could hear on the other line. "I'll meet you in the hangar," he said at last.

"I need him anyway," Billy put in before K could hang up.

K nodded at that and relayed it to Scott. "Did you catch that? Billy has been pretty insistent that we can't kill Sinister until he clears it, so keep that in mind when you go to the hangar, please."

"Fine," Scott said shortly before he hung up.

K looked up and gave Billy a look. "He had that _tone_."

"I appreciate it," Billy said with a nod. He was running a hand in the air over Jana as he said it, a slight glow at his fingertips as he kept her asleep so she wouldn't freak out.

K gave Billy a kiss on the temple before she headed back over to sit with Cody, not really asking permission before she snuggled up close and leaned her head on his shoulder. "I've missed you so much," she told him quietly.

For a second, Cody tensed, but when K simply kept her head there, he nodded, closed his eyes, and let out a slow breath. "Missed you too," he said softly. "I … I kinda hoped you or Logan survived… only ones who could've, actually…"

"Probably one of the few people that had that sentiment at the time," K replied dryly.

Cody scrunched up his nose. "I'm sorry. I don't… I wasn't there for the fight, so I'm sure I'm missing something."

"Don't sweat it; it's over anyhow," she said.

"Yeah." He bit his lip, thinking over everything she'd told him, especially trying to reckon with the idea that no one had _died_. "If I'd known, I'd have tried harder—"

"If, if, if, if. Stop." She looked at him with a grim sort of smile. "What's the first rule of Noh-Varr's deluded way of thinking?"

"The Shi'ar are evil and I must be allowed to raze them always?" Cody offered with half a smirk.

"Okay, point. Second rule."

Cody's smirk fell. "Yeah, I know," he said.

"Then tell me, because I'm old and I forgot."

"Can't change the past. Hakuna Matata. All that," Cody said, looking down at his hands before, unbidden, he started to smirk. _Damn, I can't believe I missed that,_ he added, projecting out of reflex when he had been so used to biting back swearing like that.

"What part? The mental image of Noh dancing like Pumbaa?"

Cody shook his head, smirking harder. "No, I meant… I missed hearing the Noh-philosophy. Sounds crazy, I know…"

"Not really," she said. "Not when large parts of the control that freak had over you was by making you feel guilty about the past."

Cody let out a slow, careful sigh. "Mm, more like guilty about present choices."

"What present choices? Did you obey or did you _obey_ today? Please."

"Just…" He shook his head again. "I mean, I'm a walking reminder, okay? And I wasn't… done. She was still… fine-tuning to get me perfect."

"Ah, that's hard to do when you were perfect to start," K pointed out. "And if you tell anyone but your parents I told you that, I'll _flail_ you."

"Yeah, I know." Cody gently rearranged himself so her head was at a more comfortable level.

"Just know … if your dad so much as _thinks_ about making another secondary mutation joke in my direction, he's going to be coughing up his jewels," K said, trying to get him to relax, smile, or even joke with her. She could feel how tense he was underneath her head.

Cody's mouth twitched, and then, he started to smile wider with every second. _But K, this makes three times._

"No, no … no it does not."

_When I first got my headaches, then my beams, now this…._

"Cody."

 _Sure, the evidence is circumstantial, but_ —

She started to chuckle, then kissed his cheek. "Love you too." She settled back in, trying to get comfortable as she let the silence stretch out for a moment, but she simply couldn't let it go. "Hey. If you get something else that decides to manifest on it's own, let me know before we get there, huh? Spitting fire or … I dunno. Redirect your beams through your nose ..."

"I don't have — I mean, the plan was to add a few more after healing, but her favorites were first, y'know?"

"I did say on its own. But … If he'd had any understanding of what a Summers wants, he would have given you _flight_. That's just laziness."

"Oh, well, I can do that. Telekinetic, you know."

"No, no … not what I mean at all. Supersonic flight."

"Wasn't a priority," Cody said softly.

"Lies."

"No, it wasn't."

"Can you imagine if your dad suddenly started just flying around?"

"No, I can't, because he'd never come down," Cody pointed out.

"He would come down for peach pie. And Cody hugs."

"And babies."

"Don't remind me."

_Oh, sure. I'll just conveniently forget that's a thing._

K smiled. She hadn't missed that he switched to telepathy each time he came _close_ to sounding like he was joking, but she would take that for a start. "At least until you find yourself a nice girl …"

"Yeah, um, no matchmaking, thanks," Cody said, dropping his gaze again.

"Not my job," she said. "But if you prefer a nice boy …."

"Not what I meant." Cody let out his breath again. "Talk to me again when I stop mentally comparing helixes."

"Oh, so never, then huh?"

 _I'll die single and bitter,_ he replied.

"Then we'll have to work on helping you forget that stuff," she said. _The world doesn't need a bitter Summers for any reason ever._

Cody smiled and rested his head on hers. _Thanks_.

The flight back wasn't too long, so by the time Cody and K had lapsed into silence, they were in Westchester. When they landed, Scott was indeed waiting in the hangar — with his visor in hand.

Elin and Chance were, amazingly, the first ones out — both of them still bloodied up, but he was doing much better and moving under his own steam, though Elin still looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Hey, Dad," he said with a small smile, trying to help diffuse things at that point.

Scott frowned over the state of both of them, though he did make sure to reach out to touch Elin's arm as they moved past him. "I know you can heal… both of you, I guess… but I want you to go to Hank. To be sure," he said in as gentle a tone as he could manage when he was still so mad.

Chance frowned at his dad, though he didn't take a step toward him. He still felt a little foggy after everything that had happened, but he had to ask… "You okay, Dad?"

Scott smiled tightly. "I'm fine," he promised. "Really. I'm more worried about you."

"O...kay." Chance paused, then decided better of whatever he was going to ask, instead squeezing Elin's hand. "I'm okay. I've got El," he decided.

Elin smiled grimly, though she didn't look up at Scott before she and Chance simply headed down the hall in that direction.

Scott let out a breath and scrubbed a hand over his face, watching with a frown as Teddy carried Jana past him, still unconscious. Though when K and Cody were next out, Cody froze when he saw Scott, his eyes wide as he took in the fact that Scott was in a wheelchair.

"I'll explain later," K promised Cody, sure to keep a hand on him until they were off the stairs.

Cody nodded slowly before he broke away from her and walked over to Scott — who, for his part, pulled himself to his feet so he could wrap Cody in a solid hug. Neither of them said anything at all, but it lasted a long time, the two of them just clutched on and not willing to let go.


	7. A Bad Inheritance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Summers family can't catch a break even when they catch a break. And neither can James.

After they were sure the Summerses had enough space to have their reunion, James and Logan carried Sinister out, with Billy and Teddy behind them. Teddy, carrying Jana, followed Logan and James to the lab, while Billy stayed to talk to the Summerses. It was clear that, even restrained as he was, they didn't trust him for anything.

"I need both of you," Billy told Cody and Scott, floating a few inches off the ground — so they knew it was serious. "I'm really sorry. I promise it'll be fast, but I need you two and the rest of your family before we can be done with this for good."

Scott finally stepped back from Cody — and Cody looked concerned as he helped Scott sit — before Cody looked up at Billy and nodded. "We're coming," he said.

K didn't leave the group — in case there was a call for backup — instead texting Kurt with a request for him and a couple of steady hands in case people needed to be moved quickly. Kurt was quick to respond, teleporting in with Sying, since they had just been with Kate and Krissy together — though Kurt froze and Sying let out a few words in Kree that K raised an eyebrow at when they saw … all of it.

"Later," K said, cutting off the deluge of questions she knew were coming.

Kurt nodded, though his near-Halloween cat look hadn't disappeared in the least as they got set up in the cell they'd once used for Sabretooth while Billy explained what was going on.

"I've been doing a scan the entire flight out, and besides Remy and Jana, there are only a few other possible hosts for Sinister," Billy explained. "He needs a familial connection, _and_ he needs to have worked on them. And the only other ones that fit the bill…" He gestured to Scott and Cody. "Gonna need a few more Summerses, actually… I don't think we need Alex's kids, but Alex…"

Scott looked like Billy had just sucker punched him. "What…"

"This is not the kind of thing you tell a guy when you _don't_ want him to keel over with a heart attack, Space Pants," K muttered as Cody put a steadying hand on his father's shoulder, looking ashen.

"That… was about as delicate as I could be," Billy said. "Not really a good way to explain the genetic ties?" He winced. "I tried?"

"Wow. And that's coming from me," K said, shaking her head at Billy.

"That can't be right," Scott insisted with some honest heat. "He — no. _No_."

Billy smiled grimly. "Yeah, well. The guy's lived a long time. Didn't you ever wonder why he was so interested in your family?"

"I thought it was … genetics. Studies," Scott said, seeming to hover between pure shock and anger all at once.

Billy nodded. "That and the fact that he tracked down his illegitimate _son…_ who had changed his name to Summers when he left London …"

Scott stared at Billy, stunned into silence and unable to come up with a response that wasn't just… no.

Billy let out a sigh and looked honestly apologetic. "Yeah, I wouldn't have told you, but I need some help to get in your heads to pull out the pieces Sinister left in there. I can form a body, but the telepathic bits..." He gestured between the two of them. "You won't feel a thing ... except maybe a little bit … lighter." He held up one finger. "Okay, let's start with my partner in crime…" With that, he snapped his fingers, and Quentin Quire was suddenly in the room.

Quentin had matured _slightly_ from when he'd been part of the group all the time, but he was still Quentin, so no one was surprised when his reaction to simply appearing at the mansion was to look around with a sneer and shake his head. "Nope. No … I thought you people had figured out the finer points of _consent_. That's what you kept shoving down _my throat_."

"Cute. Want to kill Sinister with me?" Billy said with a crooked grin.

"Nuh-uh," Quentin said, shaking his head. "Because you have _no intentions_ of letting me do anything like that, do you? You want me to play Nurse Betty to your … whatever this is."

Billy had one hand on his hip as he turned his whole body toward Quentin. "So you _don't_ want to unearth the bits of Sinister hidden deep in the Summers line with the fire you got last night, hmm?" he shot back — surprising everyone else there, since the last they'd heard of the Phoenix, Rachel had banished it.

Quentin tipped his chin up and kept his glare in place. "I … cannot confirm or deny anything like that."

"Q … just help the nice Demiurge and we'll find a way to pay back the favor," K said. "Or … I'll shave that mohawk off your head in your sleep and tattoo 'I love Wolverine' across your forehead."

"I'll put him to sleep for you," Billy offered sweetly.

"I know you would," K said with a wink Billy's way.

Quentin looked between the two of them, clearly trying to decide which entity was more powerful … between himself and Billy, of course. And a quick brush of the minds around him told him not only that he couldn't read Billy's mind without permission but that his reality-rewriting powers were faster than his. "I have demands," he said at last.

"What else is new?" Scott sighed.

"How about you hold on to those demands until this is over," K suggested as she took Quentin's arm and started pulling him down the hall. "I'm going to bet Billy wasn't expecting you to be entirely pigheaded, and if you want to keep that burn in your special places, you might want to cooperate before it just doesn't exist anymore. And the Phoenix, too."

Billy nodded toward Kurt, confident that K had Quentin handled. "We're going to need the others. Not just Chloe and Charlie."

"I'm going to assume you have a way to get to Nate and Hope?" Kurt said as he sent a text to Chicago — Rachel was up first, as far as he was concerned.

Billy was already nodding, his galaxies glowing. "I know where they are. Give them another two minutes to finish up with Apocalypse in that timeline."

"I"ll beat them back," Kurt said, then disappeared in a swirl of brimstone, which left Billy with Cody and Scott, listening to the negotiations going on down the hall between Quentin and K.

"You can't stab him in the face, K. I don't care if it _has_ worked in the past," Scott said with a disbelieving smirk on, alerting them to the fact that their conversation was no longer private.

"Yes I can!" she called back sweetly, though by the tone Quentin was 'arguing' with, he was already on board — just enjoying the banter.

_Bamf._

"Um, what's going on?" Charlie asked, looking like she'd been pulled by a bamf from finishing her makeup, still holding a mascara brush and on her way to a date with Gerry — though she dropped that when she saw Cody and rushed toward her brother, wrapping her arms around him tightly. "Whatever happened to your song, we'll fix it, I _swear_ ," she breathed out, though that just had Cody making a sound that meant he was a step away from tears as he wrapped her up in return, _relieved_ she was alive.

A second later, another bamf brought in Chloe, who _immediately_ broke into tears when she saw Cody, both hands over her mouth. She was in so much shock that she didn't go to join the hug right away, so the bamf helpfully teleported her closer so Charlie could pull her in. Chloe had been blaming herself for Sinister's actions for so long that seeing Cody… she simply couldn't help but fall apart.

By the time Chloe was wrapped up properly in her siblings, Kurt arrived with Rachel and a bamf brought a very confused Alex. Then, Billy, who had been watching Nate and Hope in a neighboring timeline, snapped his fingers, and the unplanned family reunion was complete — with Remy rounding out the group with a bamf on his shoulder giggling madly at the string of Cajun swears Remy gave him for interrupting his date.

"I suppose you're all wondering why I brought you here today," Billy couldn't help but say, even with the serious subject matter.

"Yeah, you could say that," Alex said, still holding a tube of sunscreen in one hand and wearing swim trunks — though a second later, he saw Chloe and Charlie wrapped around Cody, frowned, and pointed the sunscreen at Nate. "Timeline jumping or actual resurrection? In this family, I gotta ask."

"Neither," Nate said, holding up one hand.

"He wasn't dead to need a resurrection," Billy explained.

Alex raised both eyebrows as Chloe and Charlie — reluctantly — switched from hugging to just hanging onto Cody's arms so everyone else could say hi as well. And at that, Alex broke into a smile. "What, you get into steroids while you were having a walkabout?" he teased before he came to get his own hug. "You're giant, Cody. For real."

Cody couldn't help but laugh that _that_ was his uncle's reaction. "Yeah, something like that."

"Knew it."

Scott shook his head. He could always count on his little brother to cut through the tension of any moment. "Really, Alex?"

"What, like I'm wrong? Your kid ate a tank, Scott."

"Alex…" Scott pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're an idiot."

"Thanks, Scott. Really feeling the spirit of the family reunion here."

"Yeah, you can all be Summersy in a second, but I really did need to get some stuff done," Billy cut in, though he was smiling at how well Cody's reintroduction was going. "I'm building a physical form for Sinister that we can kill — but I need to gather every _single_ piece of him that he left behind." He gave the assembled Summerses a significant look. "That's you guys, by the way."

Remy blinked and gestured toward the Summerses. "Wait. All of us?"

Although Nate and Hope looked like they had expected as much — particularly Nate, considering all the time Sinister had poured into more or less raising him — Alex held up both hands. "Woah, I've had a few run-ins, but not for a _long_ time," he said.

"Can we just … not talk about that part right now?" Scott said, kneading his forehead. "Let's just get the job done, and then, you can traumatize my whole family later."

Billy smirked at that and then tipped his head toward Quentin. "My _lovely nurse_ here," he said with a crooked smile, "is going to get those pieces so I can form a body."

"Under duress," Quentin said.

"Hush. He said you were lovely," K said in a side whisper that had Quentin trying not to smirk.

"It's the glasses," Billy said without missing a beat.

"I thought it was the campy t-shirts," Quentin shot back, crossing his arms.

"Only if they were better fitted."

"No," K said, shaking her head. "You'd be disappointed then."

"True," Billy said, smiling wider.

"Oh my God, just get on with it," Rachel said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"It's helping both of them, so just relax," K said as Billy led them down to the lab, where Jamesand Logan were standing watch with Hank over the freshly-formed body of Nathaniel Essex, while Teddy sat with a still-unconscious Jana.

"Alright, _Demiurge_ ," Quentin said. "Probably about time to share with the class what the plan is. Exactly. Unless you think they're too delicate to hear it before we get to work."

"Which part?" Billy said, both hands out to his sides. "The fact that Essex needs a familial connection to jump bodies this way or the fact that you'll be using interdimensional _help_ to keep up with me?"

K was grinning at Billy as Quentin rolled his eyes. "I meant what the actual plan of action is — or do you just need me to be a supercharger for you?" Quentin arched one eyebrow up. "You need to give me more specifics than 'help me do this thing'." He smirked to himself. "Unless … you want me to pull it out of your mind."

"No, I want you to pull out the pieces Sinister left behind. I'll follow you in, and once you've excised the Sinister bits, I'll know it's safe to take them to the new body." Billy shrugged. "I'm not a telepath. Just want to be thorough."

"That's all I wanted to know," Quentin said, pushing his glasses up his nose before he cracked his knuckles and his neck in a big show. He didn't bother giving Billy any warning — a little payback for zapping him away from his _date_ with Gwen _._ By the time Billy had blinked, they were in Scott's mind, and Quentin was searching.

Neither Quentin nor Billy was terribly surprised to find Sinister's fingerprints all over Scott's mind — which was, of course, why Quentin had started there. Start with the biggest project.

"This place is _infested_ ," Quentin said with a sneer, then readjusted his glasses as he looked at a few _other_ issues, too. "I'll gather up the Sinister goop, but I'm burning _that,_ too." He tipped his head toward a hidden patch of frozen tundra that sparkled like diamonds. "That should have been gone a long time ago." He'd barely said it — and Billy had _just seen_ where Quentin was looking — before the flames stretched out from his hands and the little bit of permafrost left behind from years of Emma's meddling was melted and dried up in a blink. What Billy _didn't see,_ though, was that while he was thawing out that little patch of Scott's mind, he was also pulling up as much of Sinister's damage as he could, and by the time he'd finished both, he simply turned to Billy with a disinterested expression.

"Did you want to do any sightseeing while we're here, or have you had enough?"

Billy blinked and then grinned. "No, I'll just take out the trash while I'm here."

To Quentin's own amusement, he'd taken the parts of Sinister and formed them into a small Sinister — trapped in a Victorian-looking jar. "Seemed to be a fitting way to transport."

"Very," Billy agreed. A second later, the jar was gone, and they went on to the next mind, going from Scott to Alex to Cable to Cody and so on down the line of who seemed to have the most fingerprints in their minds — ending with Remy, who had already had Sinister burned out of him and didn't have anything left after Rachel had gotten through with him but who Quentin checked just to be sure.

When all was said and done, most of the Summerses were nursing headaches — not from Quentin's touch but from Sinister's influence leaving scars behind from how deeply he'd gotten entrenched. But Rachel had her eyes narrowed for a different reason and made her way toward Quentin.

"When did it come to you?" she asked in a rough whisper.

"How fabulous I am? Please. Day one of dealing with my powerset."

"The Phoenix, you idiot."

"What difference does it make to you?" Quentin asked.

"Because I banished it after it tried to entice my daughter, and I need to know."

"Oh, well, if you _banished it_ , then that's just the end of it forever, isn't it?" Quentin rolled his eyes.

Rachel rolled her eyes right back and shoved him in the shoulder. Hard. "Answer the damn question, Quire. I don't need powers to deal with you."

"Actually, you probably do," Quentin said with a smirk. "But don't worry about it. It won't be coming for your daughter."

Rachel looked to Billy, who nodded his confirmation and tapped his temple near his eyes. "Next in line is a Drew — after Quire goes senile."

"So like … what?" K asked, leaning forward to make sure she could see the look on Quentin's face. "Next week? Is it a Tuesday or a Thursday?"

"Sunday, actually."

"Not surprised somehow," she said, crossing her arms again as she turned her attention back to James and Logan.

Billy chuckled as he held out one hand, solidifying the bits and pieces he and Quentin had gathered until the man sitting with them could have been Nathaniel Essex as he was before Apocalypse found him — with no powers, no diamond, and no way out.

When Billy finally finished, he very nearly stumbled back, and Logan caught him with one hand before he let Teddy pull Billy down to sit and recuperate. "Alright. You can kill him now," Billy said softly.

The three ferals shared a glance, and James looked over to Scott first. "You might want to leave. I'm going to get started — unless you want in." He kept his focus on Sinister as he cracked his knuckles; he only waited to hear one way or the other from Scott.

Scott looked honestly like he was considering it, but he looked over at the way Charlie was still half wrapped around Cody and let out a breath. "I have better things to do than give him another second of my time," he said at last.

"We'll just wait until you're gone, then," Logan said.

Scott nodded at that and then looked toward Kurt, who once more didn't need to be prompted to get the Summerses out and to somewhere private — into the nearby ready room so they didn't have to bother with Sinister any longer. (The bamfs took Remy to where Teddy had taken Jana; he looked very much like he didn't want to deal with even the _idea_ of being a Summers.)

"What miracle is this?" Kurt asked, smiling widely and glad that there was some good news, all things considered.

"Sinister had him," Scott said. "This whole time."

Kurt's smile died in an instant when he heard it before he simply reasserted another hug. "I'm so sorry, Cody," he said. "If we'd known…"

"You didn't," Cody said, lightly returning the hug.

Kurt frowned at him and then turned to Scott. "If you need anything at all…"

"Just Annie for right now," Scott said.

Kurt nodded, and moments later, the bamfs had brought Annie from her baking, sticking around and dancing in place with their little tails moving frantically behind them because they were so _thrilled_ to see Cody alive and back home.

Annie gasped when she saw Cody, her eyes wide, and dropped the spatula in her hand before she simply rushed over to him, pulling him into a tight hug and positively crying her eyes out before she even got there. And considering no one in the family could handle Annie crying, none of the Summers-Hale siblings were able to keep it together. Even Cody let out a little gasp before he started to cry on his mom's shoulder and hang onto her as much as he could.

Those not in the immediate family hung back, though Rachel stood by Hope and nudged her with her shoulder. _Did you two know this was coming?_

Hope smiled softly and nodded. _Why do you think you haven't seen much of us? Dad has a soft spot for Charlie, you know, and he hates seeing her that upset._

 _Soft spot for all our little siblings, you mean,_ Rachel replied, smirking. _You act like he doesn't spoil Chance on the gun range or give Chloe chess pointers._

 _I don't know why everyone's asking so surprised. You've met_ your _father, haven't you? At least mine isn't_ that _bad,_ Hope shot back, and Rachel laughed out loud.

 _Neither of you is funny,_ Nate projected to them — but that simply prompted both of the women to positively fall apart laughing, only adding to the almost giddy relief floating around the room.

* * *

Elin had rushed off to take a shower while Hank ran Chance through a barrage of tests in the part of the lab farthest from where the Sinister drama was going down. She scrubbed every single inch of skin and then washed her hair three times before she let out a breath and realized that Chance would be looking for her before too long. Even if Hank ran every test in the lab, she couldn't hide in the shower forever. She hurried to dry off and then pulled on the spare clothes in her locker before she went back to the lab to hop up on the bed to sit next to Chance — who, as she'd expected, was done being looked over and was munching on a Twinkie.

"Everything healed?" she asked quietly.

"That's what Hank says," he said with a nod. "I'm _starving_ , though. How do you deal with this every time you get hit? I've never been this hungry."

"Try to avoid it, first of all," she said. "Then just … have no shame when it comes to eating."

"With my mom, that's not going to be an issue," he pointed out.

"Yeah, that's the other thing," Elin told him, wincing slightly. "You can gorge yourself on all that sugary stuff, but you'll end up eating constantly to keep up. There's an actual _reason_ we don't hit the sugar too hard. Takes up room when you need protein."

"Mom'll be more upset about that part than any of the rest of it," he joked lightly and kissed her cheek.

"You can still eat it," she said. "Just not as much when you're trying to catch up. That's why I will hit sugar now and again. Mom and Dad — and James now too — are _always_ playing catch up while they deal with the constant adamantium poisoning."

"Got it." He let out a tired breath and then pulled her into a solid hug. "Elin, I'm sorry," he said.

"You have nothing to apologize for," she said, snuggling in.

"Yeah, but he won't say it, and you need to hear it," he said. "And you… didn't ask to marry into… whatever this is now," he added.

"I hate to point it out, but Sinister was after my family too, remember? Dad was the first mutant he'd ever found. He's not _just_ obsessed with the Summers line."

"I know. I just meant…" He gestured to himself with one hand. "I was definitely not like this when you married me. And now you have to take me through How to Be a Healer 101."

"Yeah, well. I'm okay with that part," she said, looking at the ground. " _I'm_ sorry. None of this should have happened."

"Yeah, I know," he said before he pulled her into a kiss.

She let out a weary sigh as soon as the kiss ended, though. "No. If I'd have _caught it_ … it's my fault that he had Cody for so long."

"What are you talking about?" Chance said, frowning hard. "No it's not."

"How did I miss it?" she asked, wide-eyed. " _We were the ones to find him_. How did I miss it?"

"Elin…" He shook his head at her. "El, we were in a fight up to our elbows, covered in sand and Marauder blood, and I was a _mess_. And so were you. Nobody could have noticed the switch in that circumstance."

" _I should have smelled it_ ," she said in an urgent tone.

Chance pulled her into an even tighter hug before he put one hand on either of her shoulders and pushed lightly so he could look her in the eyes. "Elin…. How much of that day do you even _remember_? You were pretty shut down and worn out. I don't remember much myself except the leadup to finding him."

She blinked a few times and shook her head. "But I _know_ I was close to him. Even if I can't remember it now …"

"Elin, you can't even remember it. You really think you were with it enough to think it _wasn't_ Cody?" Chance said. "Come on. It's _not_ your fault. Sinister _did this_ to us."

"And I should have caught it!"

Chance let out a breath and let his shoulders drop before he pulled her into a long and lingering kiss. "No one blames anyone but Sinister," he told her gently. "You're still my amazing wife, and you're still going to rock the big sister look helping me take care of my little brother. Sinister can't change that."

She snuggled in close for a long moment, resting her forehead on his shoulder and trying to regain her bearings before finally she drew in a deep breath and cleared her throat. "You … you should probably go see your brother up close."

"And you should come with me," he said. "He's your brother too."

She nodded at that. "I will. I need to make sure my Dad didn't lose his temper too much once Billy let him go ahead."

"Alright. I'm going to grab some more food on my way up. I'll meet you there," he said, then gave her a kiss on the forehead.

Elin popped up on her toes for a chaste kiss,then headed off to where she had seen her dad and brother carry Sinister, though when she got there, Logan had just finished the job, and both of them looked grim and not at all apologetic. Logan tipped his chin to Elin. "Send Hank in. You don't need to be in the middle of this."

She frowned at that but nodded all the same — still unwilling to argue with her father over _anything_ if she could help it. So she turned to do as he'd told her to, then took her time getting upstairs, going so far as to take the stairwell instead of the elevator.

As promised, Chance was in the kitchen waiting — and eating. "Don't forget to drink, too," she advised. "You lost a lot of blood."

He looked up at her with a small smile. "Right, thanks," he said, going to the fridge to pull out a few water bottles as he pushed one her way. "You okay? You still look… pale."

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she promised, feeling self-conscious about everything and unsure of herself the more she thought about how she'd missed _Cody_. So she decided that maybe being a tour guide to the healing factor might be a reasonable way to cope. She cleared her throat gently but didn't look up to catch his gaze. Especially while he was still stuffing his face. "So … the other half of healing is sleeping … so, you know. When this is all half-settled…"

"We're probably going to pass out; got it," he said with a nod. He pulled her down to sit with him and kissed her gently. "Not quite the anniversary trip we expected, huh?"

"Never really is, is it?" She gave him a soft smile but clearly wasn't entirely herself. "But at least it ended well enough."

"Yeah, got my brother back, Dad hasn't had a heart attack, _and_ Sinister's gone," Chance listed off with a small smirk. "And I may be misremembering, but I'm pretty sure there was a green light in there. Though we might maybe want to not try _too_ hard when we've got some other stuff going on."

"I don't want to _try_ ," she said, frowning to herself. After all this … it almost looked like a sign to her of what happened when someone in her family tried to _live_. She'd no sooner told him 'yes' than their world was turned upside down, after all. But … as soon as she'd said that, Chance stiffened up, convinced that she was backing out because of _Sinister_ — and she realized she had to find a way to walk a tightrope. "Not … actively try anyhow. No … charts or pressure or paying too strict attention to things or whatever." Her fingers were laced together in her lap as she gestured, her thumbs opening up in a shrug as she tried to be clearer. "If it happens, it happens, but I don't want to force it."

Chance let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Sounds good to me," he agreed, leaning over to steal a kiss. "Have you eaten yet? You know Mom will ask when we go up to see Cody."

"No," she admitted. "I haven't. Though you might want to take a picture of those cookies for posterity." She tipped her chin toward a pan full of completely black cookies that Annie had in the oven before she'd been reunited with Cody.

"Mom will be mortified," Chance said. "Do you have your phone?"

"I do," she said. "She might be mortified, but Cody should have it framed — as proof of how much he is loved. Burnt cookies love level."

"True that," Chance said and snapped a picture. "I kinda want to see his face when he realizes that Chloe redid all his puzzles and framed them, too."

"Do you want your photographer? Because … he's kind of washing up right now."

"No, that's okay. Just my wife is fine right now," he said, leaning over to rest his head on her shoulder.

She leaned right back on him and settled in for a few minutes. "Well, if you want to see your brother …"

"Alright, let's go upstairs," he said, kissing her cheek before he pulled her to her feet with him — and handed her some of the jerky he still had. "Don't think I forgot you need to heal too."

"I'm more tired than anything," she said.

"We'll curl up and sleep until next week after we see Cody," he promised, snaking his arm around her middle and waiting for her to eat something before they headed up the stairs.

When they got up to the Summers' suite, it was more or less exactly as Elin had thought it would be. Everyone was curled up or wrapped up in one another — and Cody was effectively pinned with Annie on one side and Charlie on the other.

Elin gave Chance a little squeeze so he could head over and finally give Cody a worthwhile hug, and then crossed her arms and headed off to the side to keep out of the way as much as possible.

Of course, Charlie wasn't going to stand for that and called her over. "You're part of the family too, you know. Gerry would be here, but he's in a midterm. Summer classes."

"I already got to have a minute with him," Elin said. "We talked … at the place … and on the plane for a little while. You need your time."

"You should still be part of the family," Annie insisted.

"And I don't think you actually hugged him yet," Chance pointed out.

"You were unconscious," Elin said with her chin tipped almost to her chest as she avoided looking at any of them, her arms going around her middle tighter with every line of conversation exchanged.

"It's alright; there's plenty of time," Scott said, fast to pick up on Elin's discomfort.

Annie let out her breath at that but didn't argue; instead, she stood on her toes to brush back Cody's hair and then Chance's. "It's so nice to have both of my boys," she said in a wavering voice.

Chance smiled and pulled Annie into a hug, which meant Cody got to wrap up both of his sisters. He seemed to be more interested in keeping them close than anything else, anyway, though obviously, he hadn't really _said_ anything more than that he'd thought they were dead, and Chloe and Charlie weren't going to argue the point. They could tell he was traumatized, but considering _who_ had traumatized him, neither Chloe nor Charlie was going to poke him too hard if he needed their presence to ground him.

For the most part, it seemed like the girls were just trying to catch Cody up on what he'd missed. Charlie being married… Leslie Ann and David… Krissy and Sying's little girl… all of the big, important things. And for his part, Cody looked overwhelmed.

Chloe finally cut in when Charlie was trying to explain James and Alyssa. "You know what, I think maybe let's just… not talk for a while," she said, looking up at her much taller and broader big brother. "Two weddings and a baby alone is a lot to take in, huh?"

Cody let out a breath and nodded, even as he said, "It's alright."

"Uh-huh," Chloe said, not at all believing him. "Let's put together a puzzle." She looked at her other siblings, almost daring them to argue with her decision, though she paused when she saw that the usually white marks on Chance's face had faded. A lot. "What's up with your face?"

Chance frowned. "What?"

"The letter," she said, gesturing to his cheek.

Chance's eyes widened, and he brought his hand up to the right side of his face. "I didn't even think about that," he said quietly.

"That didn't answer my question," Chloe said.

Elin sank a little deeper into the chair she was occupying and tried to be just a bit smaller, completely copping out and leaving it to Chance and Cody to explain.

"I… can heal now," Chance said slowly. He glanced over at Elin and then at the other clearly shocked members of his family. "Long story. Sinister wanted to … screw with us."

"She wanted to augment me," Cody said quietly, which was really the most he'd said that whole time other than answers to questions he was _directly_ asked. He looked toward Scott, who was almost holding his breath. Cody nodded once and then looked toward Chloe, who was also looking pale, considering how long Sinister had _her_ just before Apocalypse had shown up. He could hear her projecting that she was sure it was her fault, somehow, so he tried to explain himself better, to reassure her that _she_ hadn't been changed. "I can use telepathy. Telekinesis. I'm stronger. Faster. I've been spending the last year or so just… learning."

Scott looked openly pained as he watched Cody. "He had no right."

Cody frowned at Scott and then dropped his gaze. "I let him," he said softly.

Elin was already shaking her head 'no' lightly, though she didn't even realize it.

"You did not," Annie said firmly. "I don't know what Sinister did to you, but I know that you wouldn't just… roll over and let him in."

"He didn't," Elin said, already coming to his defense. "He thought everyone was dead. The body snatcher used it against him to make him comply."

Annie let out a little noise as she reached up to rest her hand on Cody's cheek. "Sweetheart, that's not a choice. That's a trap," she told him firmly.

Cody couldn't help but smile at her word choice as he reached up very slowly to cover her hand with his and leaned into the touch. "I'm just really glad you're alive."

"And I'm so glad to see you too," Annie said before she pulled him into another long hug. "You're so tall now, sweetheart."

"Part of all the augmentations," he explained, though that just had Annie shaking her head at him.

"It doesn't matter. You're still my little boy."

Cody let out a breath of a sigh before he hugged Annie tightly.

* * *

Hank knew when the Howletts had finished off Sinister when K slipped out of the room and went to the showers, while Logan stayed with James to make sure he was alright, all things considered. All three of them had a familiar glint in their gaze, so Hank stayed out of their way, instead focusing on cleaning up.

In the time the Howletts had spent with Sinister, Hank had checked over Chance, helped Remy move Jana to a new room so she wouldn't wake up in a lab, and insisted on looking over Billy and Teddy as well, declaring that Billy was exhausted to the point of dehydration and was _not_ allowed to traverse dimensions until he'd slept and eaten.

With Hank quietly cleaning, Logan pulled his son aside.

"You gonna be alright?" Logan asked James, who, though he'd been involved, had not done much other than restrain Sinister when needed or offer up information on what he knew from his time with Apocalypse.

"Yeah, I'll be okay," James said, though he was frowning at the amount of blood on himself. He hadn't had time to clean up yet, and it was clear his father wasn't going to let him just walk off. Not looking like murder walking. "He had it coming. First death I've seen that I do not feel one bit guilty about."

Logan nodded at that and directed him toward the showers. James tried hard not to watch the blood dripping from his hands _too_ much. He wasn't as messy as his father could be, but he wasn't as neat and careful about it like his mother prefered to be, so he still had a fair amount of clean up to do.

But at that point, he really just wanted to get the creep's pure scent off of him. If they'd done this right — if they'd actually ended a century and a half's worth of nightmares — then he should never come across that particular scent again.

Logan walked with him away from the isolation cell on his way to the showers, and the pair of them were silent for a few moments as they navigated through the lab. "Meditation in the morning?" James asked quietly, to which, of course, Logan agreed.

"Sure you're gonna be alright tonight?"

"Dad," James said, finally turning his way. "He tortured us. All of us. How many times? Of all the things to lose sleep over — he's not one of them."

Logan nodded, but before they could separate, Logan pulled him over to make sure he had James' full attention. "Anything at all gets to you — Come. To. Me."

"I will," James said, nodding seriously. "I promise. I'm just tired. And I'll be better after we run tomorrow, I'm sure."

Logan let out a sigh, but it was clear he didn't entirely buy it yet — until James closed the distance to wrap his father up in a tight hug. "I'm just really, really sick of this idiot being the reason behind the blood on my hands," James said. "Really. I'm _glad_ it's over. For this one anyhow."

Logan nodded, squeezing James' shoulder, and stepped past him toward the showers. James would have followed him, but Hank stepped out from cleaning just then and immediately went to James to ask all the questions James knew he couldn't avoid to check on his mental well being — though it bothered him that everyone around him kept reminding him that he'd had such a moment of weakness that they would never let him forget it.

And while Hank was willing enough to accept James's promises that he was alright, James was still covered in half-dried, thick blood and only too aware of it when the door opened again — to admit Cody, who froze almost instantly.

James tipped his chin up for just an instant with a tight, forced smile, since he had no idea what to say or how to act around him after everything that had happened. "Hey. You alright?" When Cody didn't move or respond, James tried to relax his posture and took a step toward him.

Cody took a breath in sharply and shook his head as he took a step back — which was about when James heard Nate reach out to him before things could deteriorate any further. _I'm headed down to where you are. Don't go anywhere; Sinister messed with his perception and I need to address it._

 _Do you need me for that?_ James shot back.

_Yeah. You were a central figure in the reality he set up for Cody._

_There a reason you didn't tell me this before I killed Sinister?_ James asked. _Because if I'd known he'd turned me into the boogeyman for Cody, I'd have encouraged Dad to take his time._

_Yes, James, because my immediate thought after Billy zapped me here with Apocalypse's blood still drying on my shoes was your status as the boogeyman._

_I was more concerned with your brother, but now I absolutely see the problem. You can get new shoes_ , James shot back in a completely irritated tone.

_You can take Hope shopping later._

_I don't need the Summers consolation prize of being allowed to talk to one of you for five minutes. I couldn't give a damn about your shoes when I'm covered in Sinister. I'm taking a shower. Deal with your problems on your own time._

_I'm on my way down to help Cody, damnit. Stay put._

_Good for you_. _I'm washing up._ James turned to leave when Nate reached out again.

 _You'll just make this harder if you go now. Half the problem is the blood, and he'll do this again after your next mission when I'm not around to fix it if I can't address this properly_ now _._

 _And you can't_ possibly _tell anyone what you have in mind, can you?_ James said. _If you'd led with that, I would have_ wanted _to help you, and there wouldn't have been any kind of an argument._

_Being the boogeyman wasn't enough?_

_Screw you, Nate._ James was well beyond worn out — and feeling as if Nate was telling him he was being self-centered on top of things was just the cherry on a very bad cake.

Nate didn't respond until he got down to the lab and then projected out to both boys. _Alright, let's deal with this before it gets worse. James, let me show you what reality Cody's been living._

 _Like I have a choice in it,_ James shot back.

Nate rolled his shoulders and, without another word, pulled them into Cody's head — where Cody was simply reliving exactly what Sinister had shown him when he made him believe James had killed everyone in the hidden cabin.

For a long moment, James couldn't do anything more than stare; the scene in front of him was jarring, and it brought back a whole slew of bad memories for him. "Got it," James said quietly, through his teeth. "You've got a solid argument against what Billy's told me."

Nate shook his head at that. "It's the _blood_ that's throwing him off. This is what he saw when he saw you in the lab just now. I'm only trying to give you context."

"Message received. I'll keep away from him."

Nate let out a short noise and then strode past James to where Cody was to catch Cody's attention and draw his gaze from the blood in the grass. "I know you just got done sitting with Charlie and Chloe, so you _know_ this is all a lie," he said, gesturing toward the memory.

Cody blinked and seemed to suddenly realize Nate was there. Shaking his head, he seemed to center himself and then noticed James was there, too. "I know," he told Nate, though he was staring at James. "I just… I know. I saw him when we escaped."

"It was Sinister's blood on James tonight, not anyone else's."

"Yeah. I know."

"Good. Then stop letting Sinister dictate which reality you're living in."

Cody turned with his whole body toward Nate, his driest possible look etched on his features. "Right, I'll get right on that."

"Good."

Cody tsked. "Nate—"

"What, you're going to tell me you were too far gone? Me?" Nate matched Cody's look with one of his own. "Spent too long with the bastard?"

"That's not fair—"

"Sure." Nate gestured over his shoulder to where James was. "So you know, just about the only part of what he showed you that wasn't a lie was James' solution. Only in reality, it didn't stick."

Cody went stiff as he looked toward James, who was staring at the bodies in the grass with a distant, quiet expression. Nate smirked and stepped back so Cody could make his way toward James, twisting his hands until he got there, trying to ignore that he could _see_ James knew what Sinister had shown him. "You… um… you okay?" Cody asked James after a minute. "You didn't exactly ask to see the bloodbath here…."

"Doesn't really matter," James replied, hung up on the bloodied faces around them.

"Kinda does," Cody pointed out. "You're in here with me."

"Just … take care of yourself, Cody."

"I will," Cody said. He took a deep breath and let it out. "Can you… can you tell me… how you got out from under him? If it wasn't this…"

"I don't really …" James frowned deeply, then looked up at Cody. "I didn't answer to Sinister."

"I meant Apocalypse," Cody clarified. "I know Sinister… well, in my head, she's still Jana."

"Oh," James said, then looked down at his hands. There really wasn't any way for him to escape any of it. Even though this scene was wrong … change a few faces here and there … the location … there was some accuracy. James cleared his throat. "Rachel nearly killed me when she burned Apocalypse out of my head. And … they told me that Lorna and Doc Strange had to crack my skull open to get rid of a death spore. I guess that's … that's the jist of it."

"So she wasn't lying about much," Cody said softly, rubbing the back of his neck. "She said Rachel lost control, and she said you tried ending it."

But James nodded, and his tone sounded almost distant when he spoke. "Yeah, I did."

"I'm glad it wasn't this that put you over that edge," Cody said. "I … I had nightmares for months about you and John."

"No, it wasn't this ... " He took a breath and held it for a moment before he closed his eyes. "It was losing Vanessa, and Kitty, and _you_ and all the people I _did_ kill."

"I'm sorry," Cody said softly.

James looked around at the carnage. "If I had done this ... and this _is_ what he wanted me to do … I would have gotten it right when I tried to off myself. Or kept going until it stuck."

"Yeah. This…" Cody took a deep breath and trailed off. "It's … I couldn't think for weeks after this."

"You shouldn't have to be reminded of it," James said. "I'll keep out of your way."

Cody nearly nodded and then caught himself, swallowed, and shook his head instead. "Please don't," he said — struggling even in his own head to make requests.

"I don't want to make it any harder for you, Cody."

"Hard was losing everyone and thinking _that_ had happened," Cody said, gesturing toward the memory. "I'll get through the rest of it, but… but it would _suck_ if Sinister posthumously ruins one of the best friendships I had growing up by _lying_ about it." He paused and then let his gaze drop. "If… if that's alright with you, I mean."

"I can't promise that I won't get messy again," James said. "I've been … not great at keeping my temper in check since then."

"That's okay. I haven't been allowed to have a temper. You can get mad for both of us. Or something." Cody winced a smile. "Blood doesn't usually bother me. I just…"

"Blood on me is the trouble."

"Yeah." Cody gave him a tight smile. "I'll just… stay out of your way after missions?"

"You may not have to worry about that," James said. "The way things are going, I don't know if I'll be allowed on them anyhow."

"That's alright. I'm not allowed either."

"Yeah, well, the idiots in the streets aren't trying to _worship_ you."

Cody actually broke into a smirk. "Oh, yeah, the world's gone to hell. What's to worship? The stupid hair or the snide remarks?"

"That's what I've been sayin'," James said. "Tyler needs to learn to mind his own damn business."

"He can't help it. Poor Mormon boy going to pieces with all those _heathens_ worshipping a _Howlett_ ," Cody snorted.

"No, it's not that with him… it's the idiots are hung up on all the humans I killed."

Cody lost his smirk and then fidgeted. "If you want," he said slowly, "I… can probably draw Tyler's fire. I experimented on a _bunch_ of mutants."

"And I killed a lot of people experimenting on mutants, too," James said. "That's not … Tyler's just mad at me. He's not mad at Sying or Leslie Ann or sweet Amadi."

"Must be a Creed reflex," Cody said, shrugging.

"It's Tyler's fault that I'm still alive," James said, smiling tightly.

"Ah." Cody nodded, finally understanding. "Well, remind me to thank him. I think I'd've had a worse time hearing you were dead. I mean, the details aren't the same but still… I _mourned_ you, okay?"

"I can't believe that under the circumstances." James held up both hands. "But I'm not going to argue it with you."

"Thanks." Cody took a deep breath and held out a hand. "Okay, so, start over? Still friends?"

"Sure," James agreed, though he looked hesitant to touch Cody knowing how upset he'd been. "We're probably holding up your brother from his early bird special somewhere anyhow."

"Probably," Cody agreed, still holding out his hand. "He'll be fine."

It took another moment or two before James finally reached out to shake Cody's hand, and he still had it in his head to keep out of the way — not just for Cody's sake. The fact of the matter was that going from Hank's little press to seeing everything Cody had been tortured with had him far less than okay than he was going to admit — he was, in fact, reconsidering his decision to keep he was a bit caught off-guard when Cody yanked his hand to pull him into a hug.

"Thanks, by the way," Cody said. "For, you know, getting me out."

"I just aided and abetted Billy, Teddy, and my parents," James said.

"I know how that goes," Cody said. He let James go and stepped back, then cleared his throat. "Okay, so. Still friends. Both traumatized. Ummm… I guess now we try to sleep?"

"Never gonna happen," James said. "But you go ahead and try."

Cody smirked and gestured with both hands. "Haven't slept without being exhausted or sedated in about a year. Wish me luck?"

"Well you're starting the evening with Nate — should be a slam dunk," James said dryly.

"Great. I'll cheat," Cody said, and Nate rolled his eyes but pulled them back into reality all the same.

"No," Nate said before Cody could say anything else — and Cody immediately nodded.

"What's the deal?" James said, looking between them, then balled up his fist. "You can't say no? Want me to hit him for you, Cody?"

Outside of his mind, Cody was significantly different, with drawn-in shoulders and more furtiveness to his movements as he shrugged. "I'm fine."

James didn't move for just a second, but when he did, he cracked Nate in the shoulder _hard_ enough to get Nate swearing. He gave Nate a raised eyebrow look and then started for the showers as if nothing had happened, projecting for Nate to leave him alone.

It left Nate glaring and Cody trying not to snort — which meant Nate had a hard time saying anything when Cody did actually _genuinely_ need his friend sticking up for him. So, Nate just shook his head and left — and Cody did actually snort at that.

* * *

Almost no one in the Summers family was ready to sleep that night, still brimming with the _thrill_ of being reunited with Cody. But eventually, exhaustion won out, and they all headed to bed.

Even then, sleep wasn't coming easily to Scott — for good reason. He was so overwhelmed, so _grateful_ to know that his son was _alive_ that he didn't know how to get his feet underneath him.

He watched Annie taking four times as long to get through her bedtime routine as she usually took, brimming with energy and periodically wiping tears from her cheeks. She was actually the member of the family dealing with this best, because she had gone straight through relief into joy. The rest of the family was still processing.

 _Scott_ was still processing.

It wasn't like he hadn't done this before. Losing people he loved only to get them back from the dead. The number of times he had seen Jean come back to life alone… He was surprisingly used to the impermanence of death.

And yet…

And yet it was different, wasn't it? It was different without the Phoenix, without time travel, without any of the usual complications. Cody had _died_ — but he hadn't. He hadn't, and _that_ was why he was back. No miracle resurrection. No Cody from another world that he would be forever comparing to the one he had raised. His son.

He was so grateful it felt like an ache in his chest, like he couldn't breathe. And then, when he did breathe, the sound was too loud, and he couldn't hold it in anymore before he put a hand over his eyes and simply started to _cry_.

And he didn't stop for a good, long while.


	8. Still a Long Way to Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which, as we all know, recovery is a long road.

Sying still felt a little shocked over everything that he had seen when he got back to his suite with Krissy and Ariel. It was… a _lot_ to process.

He must have looked dazed, too, because Krissy left Ariel where she was playing on the floor with her toes to teleport over to Sying and run her hands over his face. "Are you alright?"

"Just a little shocked, that's all," Sying said, reaching up to grab her hands and give her a reassuring squeeze and a kiss. "Really, I'm alright. It's… Sinister's dead."

Krissy froze as she stared up at Sying. "Wait. What?"

"I just saw it," Sying explained. "Billy pulled him out of Jana and the Summerses and then just… left him for my grandparents to work over."

Krissy winced dramatically. "Oh, ouch."

"He deserved it," Sying said.

"Oh, for sure. But… ouch."

Sying nodded lightly. "And… Cody was there."

Krissy frowned and immediately pressed a hand to Sying's forehead. "Are you alright? Did Sinister hit you with some kind of psychic… whatever?" she asked in an obviously worried tone. "Do I need to get Hank?"

Sying shook his head as he gently pushed her hand away, though he had to laugh when he saw Ariel unsteadily making her way over to the two of them — walking part of the way before crawling the rest of the way because she knew she was faster that way. And as soon as Ariel got there, she handed Sying her favorite elephant toy and patted his cheek when he picked her up.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy," she said over and over, her tone concerned, like Krissy's.

Sying smiled at her and pinched her nose lightly. "I'm alright, I promise," he told both of his girls before he looked Krissy's way specifically. "It really was Cody. Sinister faked his death and kidnapped Cody… but Scott and Annie are pretty much hugging the stuffing out of him right now."

Krissy looked like he could have knocked her over with a feather. "Wow," she finally said, softly.

Ariel looked over at Krissy and got a concerned sort of look on her face when she saw her mom's expression. She tugged on her dad's shirt. "Daddy, daddy — momma!" she said, pointing at Krissy until Sying brought her close enough to Krissy that they could do a baby transfer and Ariel could give Krissy her elephant toy.

"Thank you, Ariel," Krissy said with a smile before she kissed Ariel's cheek.

Sying smiled as he put his arm around Krissy's shoulders. "But you know what… seeing the Summerses melt all over Cody reminded me how glad I am that I have you both," he said.

Krissy couldn't help but smile at him and then leaned over to kiss him. "Right back at you," she said.

Now that Ariel could see that her parents were okay and no longer wearing those sort of dazed expressions, the little girl seemed to think her work was done and started to wriggle until Krissy finally set her down so that she could get back to playing with her toys.

"She's getting better at that walking thing," Sying said with a smile as he sat down cross-legged with the girls.

Krissy nodded with a proud smile. "She'll go farther if someone's watching," she said. "No idea where she got that from."

"I'm going to keep my mouth shut, or I'll get in trouble on that one," Sying teased.

Krissy laughed and then leaned over to kiss him again. "She'd get farther if _your daughter_ wasn't so impatient," she couldn't help but tease him right back. "She wants to skip right to running and not walking."

"Oh yeah, that definitely sounds like something I gave her. Sorry about that," Sying said with as straight a face as he could manage.

Krissy laughed at that and stole another kiss. "Yes, exactly."

Ariel seemed to think the whole thing was hilarious as she giggled up at both of her parents. Krissy smiled and helped the little girl get to her feet and get her balance before she let go and let Ariel almost rush forward, grinning and giggling the whole way until she fell into Sying's arms.

Sying couldn't stop grinning at her as he swept her up into his arms and kissed her. "You're doing such a good job!" he cooed at her.

She grinned and hugged him back, then set off back to Krissy, her arms outstretched for balance — and for a little while after that, Sying and Krissy were too busy watching Ariel being her adorable self to care much about the rest of it.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kurt had returned to his family feeling rather dazed as well, though not quite as badly as Sying had been. After all, this wasn't his first experience seeing friends come back from the dead.

"You've got that 'this is my life now' look on your face, _Engelchen_ ," Kate called out to him when she saw him. "What's going on?"

Kurt smiled a bit her way before he simply teleported to her to wrap her up. She was surrounded by the rest of their kids, since Chelsea was dictating to them that they all needed to be dragons, and of course, her older siblings were more than happy to play along. Kade especially had the best roars and would get the loudest giggles out of Chelsea.

"Some good news," Kurt said, then kissed Kate gently. "Some very, very good news."

"Alright, Mr. Mysterious. Spill," she said, wrapping her arms around him with a smile.

He looked around to see that the older two — Kari and Kaleb — were paying a bit more attention to what their parents were up to now and inclined his head slightly. "It started with a little bit of bad news," he admitted. "Chance and Elin found themselves in trouble with Sinister."

Kate narrowed her eyes and let out a little 'ooh' of anger. "Well, where is she? I can stick an arrow in the diamond in the center of her forehead."

"Not necessary, _liebchen_ ," Kurt said, laughing at her expression. "Logan, K, and James have already taken care of that."

"Oh good. The kids okay?"

"Yes, they're with Hank," Kurt said. "And Cody is with his parents," he added, watching not only Kate but the kids to see the understanding comprehension dawn on them.

"Wait." Kaleb was the one to get to his feet first, his head tipped to the side. "You meant Chance, right?"

"No," Kurt said, shaking his head and unable to quite stop his smile. "Cody's with his family now, but I'm sure that you'll be able to see him in a few years when his sisters unattach and let him loose."

By that time, even Kade was paying attention as all three older kids broke into huge grins. "How?" Kari asked, her eyes wide and her tail doing almost a dance behind her in awe.

"He was never dead," Kurt said. "Sinister kidnapped him and left someone else for us to find. I'm sure the others are looking into the details of it, but the most important thing here is that he's alive and back with his family."

Kate couldn't help but smile as she wrapped herself around him a little tighter. "You love doing those, don't you? Dropping them off for reunions?"

"Being part of miracles?" Kurt said, the smile stretching a little wider. "Yes, of course. Those are the moments that remind me why we do what we do."

Kate couldn't help but smile at that and kissed him as Kaleb let out a celebratory whoop and Kade jumped up on the couch to punch the air.

"That means the team is back together," Kaleb grinned.

"I'm sure Scott and Annie are _so_ happy right now," Kari agreed, looking positively delighted.

"Oh, absolutely," Kate agreed fervently, letting go of Kurt with just one hand so she could ruffle Kade's hair, since he was closest. "You kids are the world to us. We love it when you're safe."

"Mo-o-o-om," Kade complained as he tried to put his hair back in place.

"Can't stop," Kate sang out his way. "Love you too much."

"Love me a little less," Kade shot right back.

"Nope, can't do it," she said, letting go of Kurt to simply tackle Kade into a tickle that he couldn't escape — with loud encouragement from Chelsea to "get 'im, mommy!" the whole time.

* * *

It was stunning how incredibly worn out Chance was after his near miss with Sinister, so he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. But although Elin certainly curled into him and held on tight as he passed out, she couldn't quite relax. It was a whirlwind of emotion … having gone from such wicked high levels of stress to relief so incredibly strong that it had taken her breath away.

Despite the fact that her injuries were healed, she was still buzzing, almost dizzy as she laid there with him, her head on his shoulder. Outside of Cody's return, nothing that had happened was good. And although Chance had made it through, she was entirely sure that he wasn't prepared for the backlash of this one.

She bit her lip, halting her absent little habit of running a finger across his chest to watch him _breathe._ And in spite of all the horrible possible repercussions keeping her awake, she couldn't help but smile.

Sinister had completely shot herself in the foot on this experiment. She'd meant to kill him — and if her parents hadn't arrived before Sinister finished the transfer on Cody, she would have — but … she never got the opportunity to do it. And instead, Chance was at least a little bit more durable than your average Summers. Which was good, when Elin considered his track record.

She'd just started to nuzzle in again when his breathing ticked up, and instead, she froze, worried that all of the good work that her father and Hank had done on him had started to unravel. To her surprise, he woke up a moment later in a blind panic, though he was half-tangled in the blankets and couldn't quite get away from her fast enough before he fell out of the bed.

She moved fast and grabbed a hold of his wrists as he held his hands in front of himself, trying to keep distance from whoever he thought was attacking him. "Chance," she said before he tried to push her away hard, which only got her doubling down and rushing to pin him.

Before it was over, she had him half twisted around into a leg lock, though she kept a tight hold on both of his wrists until he started to calm down enough for her calling his name to sink in. "What were you dreaming?" Elin asked, frowning and wide-eyed as he tried to catch his breath.

"Sinister," he almost breathed out, still worked up and panicked-sounding. "El, she wants to — she's going to kill me—"

"You're _home_ ," she told him, though she still hadn't let go of his wrists or let up on the leg lock. She didn't know if this was another issue like the one he'd had when he thought Viper had them, but she was determined to get him through it again. "With _me._ " When he finally let out a breath and she saw his shoulders relax, she let him go and shifted how she was sitting on him so she could lean forward and give him a little kiss. "Horrible way to wake yourself up."

Chance nodded slowly and closed his eyes as he tried to level out his breathing. "Didn't mean to wake you…"

Elin watched him carefully and took a hold of his hands, entwining their fingers as he slowly breathed. "I was already awake," she admitted.

"You okay?" he asked softly.

"Are you?"

He let out a breath. "I will be. I think. I just need to calm back down."

"How can I help?"

"Well, we can get back in bed," he said with a small smirk.

"So I can tackle you again?" Elin had to tease.

Chance smirked a bit wider. "Alright," he said, then relaxed into her shoulder.

"I mean … I could give you a chance to tackle me, but you're already tired, and you'll just lose anyhow."

"Probably." He took a deep breath. "I'm okay. Really. I just… everything that happened… it all came rushing back like I hadn't _really_ processed it until now..."

"Sorry about that," she said a little quieter. "I just didn't want you to hurt yourself."

"It's okay," he promised quickly. "I just — it's okay."

She leaned back to watch his expressions. "No, it's not. But we can try to sleep a little more if you want." She leaned forward to give him a gentle kiss. "Before the next round of your mother trying to feed you, baby bird."

"Yeah," he agreed quietly. "I'm good with an excuse to snuggle."

She got up and offered him a hand. "Since you _need_ an excuse ... "

He smirked lightly as he got to his feet. "Love you, El."

"Love you more," she said as she started to straighten up the bed a bit.

He smiled at her as he pulled her down with him. "Come in here. You need to heal up too."

"I'm already healed up, big guy," she promised, though she didn't argue with him on the snuggling one bit.

* * *

Billy had made sure to keep Jana asleep until Rachel had gotten to Westchester and dealt with everything around removing Sinister and his influence within the extended Summers family. But now that it was all done, Remy was visibly anxious to see Jana and to discover what kind of shape she was in.

Billy had done what he could to help her, too. He had magicked her some different clothes than the ones Sinister had been wearing — jeans and a tee shirt that would have suited her tastes a little better when she was in control of her own body years ago. There wasn't much he could do about the fact that she still had new powers and pale skin, but the red in her eyes was gone, as was the diamond.

Billy looked up once Rachel and Remy were there and got to his feet. "I'll let you two handle this part," he said. "I'm not a telepath." He looked between them and let out a sigh. "This is going to be rough. I hope you're ready for it."

"We gon' make sure she gets what she needs," Remy promised Billy as he sat down across from Jana.

Billy nodded and simply disappeared, leaving Rachel and Remy with the former Sinister host to try and sort out _that_ mess.

It took a few minutes, but Jana slowly started to stir, though even once she was awake, she didn't exactly move or even open her eyes.

"Jana," Rachel prompted as gently as she could. "You're safe. No one else is in your mind, I promise. You're back in Westchester, and Sinister is dead."

Jana sat still for a long moment before she slowly opened her eyes, a frown tugging at her expression when she saw the two of them sitting across from her. But she still wasn't really… responding. At all.

Remy and Rachel both tried to reassure her, letting her know that she was safe and that Sinister was gone, but she really didn't do much except to watch the two of them and then start to very quietly cry when she realized that it was over.

But that was the only response they could get out of her for the moment, and the two of them finally ducked out, with Rachel shaking her head with as serious an expression as Remy had ever seen from her.

"She doesn't know what to do," she told Remy with a sigh. "She hasn't been in control of her own mind and body for so long that she doesn't know how to… _exist_."

"We teach her, then," Remy said with a decisive sort of nod.

Rachel nodded. "I'll start bringing up her memories and reminding her of who she used to be, but right now, we just need to get her to remember how to be a _person_. She hasn't done anything on her own for years."

"Sounds a lil' bit like sometin' Dr. Blue might be worryin' 'bout," Remy pointed out.

"He could probably help," Rachel agreed. "Most of it's mental, because her muscle memory is fine. There's just a disconnect between mind and body right now."

Remy nodded along to everything she said and then let out a breath. "Well. We bes' get started."

* * *

Charlie had given up on sleep in the early hours of the morning, because everyone's emotions were so high — including her own — that she was having a hard time getting comfortable enough to find sleep. She had drifted off a few times, but that hadn't lasted. So, she was going to get some caffeine and wait for the rest of her family before thinking about real breakfast.

She wasn't the only one awake, though. Annie was coming back up the stairs from getting coffee for herself - which told Charlie she'd also had a hard time sleeping, since she rarely deviated from sweet tea. But Charlie could feel Annie's song bursting with energy, so she knew Annie wasn't sleeping because she was too _thrilled_ and didn't want to lose a moment with her son.

When Annie saw Charlie, she redirected to walk to the kitchen with her, the two of them sharing a wordless conversation of tired but happy smiles. It wasn't until Charlie got into her coffee that she said, "Dad okay?"

Annie nodded. "He didn't fall asleep until late. I didn't want to disturb him."

Charlie nodded, falling silent again, though she frowned when she heard another song approaching and Nate and Hope came into the kitchen, obviously deep in a telepathic conversation. Nate's song was still too busy and stuck in forte, while Hope's was much quieter than her dad's, even amused, since she knew about James hitting Nate for Cody the previous night.

Charlie watched Nate for some time and then, with her head tipped to the side, said, "You're going to end up with a worse heart attack than Dad if you don't calm down, you know."

Hope gestured with one hand and a smirk. "Bet you'll listen to your favorite," she said, and Nate gave her a sharp look for that.

Charlie blushed lightly. "I'm just…" She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Everyone else is happy, and you're still just as angry and frustrated and aggressive as you were when Billy pulled you in."

Nate made a sharp motion with one hand. "I just came from—"

"Yeah, I know," Charlie interrupted him. "You were this keyed up when Apocalypse was here too. In exactly the same way." She took a deep breath, held it, and let it out again. "It's not really fair to the rest of us to have to deal with the mood you're bringing from a timeline we had nothing to do with, you know." She held up one hand. "I'm the last person to say you should ignore how you feel — but could you at least take a minute to appreciate the present? You just helped us get rid of Sinister for good, and we're celebrating Cody being alive. And I'm sad for you that you can't celebrate with us when you're still in combat mode."

"It's not something you just turn off, Charlie," Nate said as reasonably as he could even if he looked worn out and in need of a rest. "I'm a soldier _first_. I always have been. You know that."

"Oh, please," Annie said in a scoff, rolling her eyes behind her cup of coffee. "That's ridiculous."

"It's the truth," Nate argued. "This is only a temporary stop in our mission. A mission that isn't anywhere near over."

Annie set her mug down and met his gaze. "Nathaniel," she said in a tone that was somehow sharp and sweet at the same time, "you are a person, first and foremost. Don't give me that crap."

He looked irritated at that. "You haven't lived through what I have."

"No, I haven't," Annie said, still in that same tone. "I have, however, spent my entire life tending to people with PTSD, cleaning up the messes left behind from people who believe their mission is worth more than they are, and desperately trying to keep my family alive. Please don't treat me like I'm naive. You won't do anything but make me mad."

"I don't expect anyone to really understand what I'm trying to do," Nate said, still with his usual serious edge to his words. "And I'm not downplaying the good you've done here. I'm just saying that _my job_ isn't done yet." He gestured widely. "And you're not alone. Everyone here has been doing a lot of good and has even been helpful when I've needed the help on my mission."

" _Well_." Annie sniffed. "That's lovely, honey. I'm so pleased you know how to use our family members in your _mission_."

"I don't _use_ our family members," Nate said dryly.

"Family is more than blood," Annie said. "But I suppose if you're going to dismiss everything your father tried to teach you, you can continue to act like you threw aside his good work in favor of Sinister and Apocalypse's outlook on the use of mutants as tools."

"My whole mission is making sure that Apocalypse is _dead_ in every reality," Nate said, stepping toward her without thinking about it, the insinuation that he listened to his enemy too much to ignore. "The last person's outlook that I'd take in is _his_."

"So I shouldn't read too much in your complete lack of manners, disregard for consent, and belief that anyone outside of your favorites is fair game for exploitation in favor of your mission?"

For an instant, Nate found himself holding back from peeking into her mind, if for no other reason than to prove Annie wrong. "What are you _talking_ about?"

Annie folded her hands primly in front of herself. "You came here still ready for a fight, traumatized James in service of my son's sanity, and continue to bristle at the least bit of _care_."

"James can handle it," Nate said dryly. "That whole family is _fine_."

"Ah. Well, if they're _fine_ , that's it, then. No one else I know uses that phrase."

Nate narrowed his eyes, still not following her yet. "It's like you're not even speaking English. That's what I said. What's your problem?"

"My problem, Nate, is that you treat anyone outside your blood family like a weapon or a tool. And _that_ , honey, is exactly the opposite of what I know your father and Jean spent their honeymoon instilling in you. So you must have learned it elsewhere." She smiled tightly. "Bless your heart."

A great many things ran through Nate's mind, not the least of which was 'they were different then', or 'you really don't know the full story', or a dozen other instances and incidences that proved he was in the right, but Hope snorting out laughing on the astral plane drew his attention more than the driving desire to prove himself right.

"I don't mean to insult you or anyone else," Nate said slowly. "But I've treated the people outside of my _circle_ like soldiers." He held up one hand. "I'm not going to argue that when that's been working for everyone in the bigger picture, but I can _try_ to step back from that when I'm around you."

Annie tipped her head slightly as she considered him. "What I'd like," she said at last, "is for you to step back from that when there's no battle to be fought. Moments like this?" She gestured around the table. "There's no reason to be a soldier right now."

"He doesn't know how to turn it off," Hope said over the edge of her mug.

"That's alright, dear," Annie said, her smile _significantly_ warmer toward Hope. "His father was the same way for a good, long while. He'll figure it out if he puts his mind to it. He's just not putting his mind to it."

"Accurate description in every timeline," Hope said with a smile.

Annie's smile warmed up even more. "I keep inviting the two of you, you know. You're welcome any time you like. You're family; I'd love to see you both for more than emergencies or big events."

"I'll put it on repeat in his head," Hope promised.

"Oh, I knew I liked you from the moment I met you at the wedding," Annie said delightedly. She scooped up her mug and walked toward the door, pausing to kiss Hope on the temple and then to _pointedly_ get on a chair and kiss Nate's cheek. "I'm going back to bed until your father wakes up. Please stay and relax as long as you need to. Lord knows you're at least not as bad as Akihiro. I can work with this."

With that, Annie sauntered off, leaving Charlie snickering into her own coffee mug and grinning over at Hope. "I wish Dad had seen that. He loves it when Mom gets eloquent."

Nate frowned at both of them, then headed for the door, leaving the two of them to snicker to each other.

But Hope leaned toward Charlie. "You _know_ …. I could be persuaded to show him. Dad's going for a run, and it's pretty much guaranteed that he'll run into Logan and James — who you know are going to give him the cold shoulder. So … a smiling Cyclops might be worth irritating Dad."

"Oh, would you please?" Charlie asked brightly. "James really has been through the wringer. He'd love to see his godfather in a good mood. They adore each other, you know."

"I do," Hope agreed. "But … I'll do that if you hit Dad with what James is dealing with." She tapped her heart. "You know … he really doesn't see a problem with how he handles people."

"I can't share emotions the other way…"

"Yet," Hope said.

Charlie smiled when she heard it. "Well, if that's the case, I'll wait and hit him once I know how to do that. Pinkie swear."

"It's just a shame it's not now," Hope said. "It'll probably be faded by then — and he needs the kick in the pants."

Charlie nodded thoughtfully. "You… could borrow my power and try it?" she offered. "If I'm going to be able to share later…"

"Don't think I won't," Hope said, then paused, smiling. "How do I get them in the same room?"

"Oh, well, if my mom's stories from when we were babies are true, all you need to do is tell your dad Chance wants him," Charlie teased.

"What are the odds that Chance would _help_?"

"He can't say no to me. I'll guarantee it."

"Then … let the ambush begin," Hope laughed.


	9. Welcome Back, Cody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cody's reintroduction is going... about as well as can be expected.

The Summers family came downstairs as a group for breakfast once everyone was awake — and it didn't seem like Annie or Chloe was going to detach from Cody anytime soon.

Breakfast in itself was an experience, since there were a few kids around the place that Cody hadn't met yet. He'd been warned about Ariel and had seen pictures, and Chloe had shown her pictures of Lily, but it was still different in person seeing Krissy come downstairs with a tiny ball of white fur in her arms. And weirder still to see the tiny blonde in the group of Howletts happily eating sweets.

The little blonde stared up at the broad young man for a moment. "Do you like choc-o-lit?" Lily asked, doing her best to enunciate every syllable.

Cody blinked at her, then nodded lightly. "Yeah."

"D'ya want some?" Lily asked.

Cody nodded again, watching the little girl as he got his tea. It was easy to see K's influence in her face and mannerisms, but not everything matched up. After a moment of watching Lily be _Lily_ , he reached out to ask K about her. _What's her story?_

 _Alternate dimension_ , K explained as she fed John. _Billy saved her from Sabretooth - who happens to be her father._

 _Ah… okay_ , Cody thought to himself, unable to stop himself from thinking about the potential in Lily regarding her parents, the genetic possibilities Sinister had taught him to seek out. It was a good match, though not as perfect as K and Logan were...

Lily moved over to make room for Cody, tossed her hair over her shoulder very much like K did, and then patted the chair next to her with an insistent look. "I'm not s'posed to bite. So I won't."

Cody smirked before he sat down next to her, and Annie beamed between the two of them as she set some pancakes in front of Cody with instructions to eat up — which he did.

Lily watched him with a curious expression, then tipped her head as she watched him. "Do you wanna try one of mine? I gots _rainbow_ choc-o-lit chips."

"That's alright. I'm eating my own breakfast," Cody told her quietly.

She watched him for a moment longer, then pulled on his arm until he picked it up, shoved her plate right next to his, and climbed over to sit on his knee.

Cody looked downright surprised at the move. "O...kay."

She looked up at him and then simply leaned back so she could use him for a chair. "I _like_ you."

"Alright," Cody said, a small smile tugging at his expression. "I'm Cody, by the way."

"I'm Lily," she said as she let out her breath and then went back to her pancakes, happily humming to herself all the while.

Cody couldn't help but shake his head to himself, though when he saw K watching the interaction, he had to ask, _Did you put her up to this?_

 _Didn't have to,_ K replied. _She's just like this._

_I wouldn't know._

_You will. She_ likes _you._

 _Alright,_ he replied, nodding her way before he went back to his pancakes, careful of the little girl making herself comfortable on his knee. It was obvious she had her mother's charm, but she was already much more overtly pushy than he'd ever seen K act. Already, he could see how Lily was far more of an opportunist than anyone in the Howlett family, and he found himself wondering which side she'd favor as she grew up. Blonde hair and blue eyes were the most obvious Creed features, but when he really looked at her … the slope of her nose and the curve of her chin wasn't like K's at all. When Lily brushed her hair behind her ears, he realized the very tips of her ears were delicately pointed … just a little bit, though. Which meant her physical mutations were likely more like her _father_.

He found himself watching her hands move, looking for any sign of the lions claws he suspected were hidden at the tips of her fingers, but she was just too young to show anything that overt yet. That could be interesting to study—

 _Wait, no._ Cody closed his eyes and forced the thought out of his mind. _I'm home,_ he reminded himself before he dared to open his eyes again.

Lily was singing to herself, humming when her mouth was full, and she watched Cody out of the corner of her eye as she carefully cut a bite out of her rainbow-chip pancake and slid it over to him.

"What's this for?" he asked.

"Whatcha mean?" she asked, shrugging her shoulders up.

"You don't need to feed me," he said. "My mom has that covered."

She turned to look at him and took her fork to pick up the little piece of pancake. "That's not feedin' you … _this_ is feedin' you." She got a determined look on her face and simply went for it. "Open up!"

Cody looked taken aback before he simply shook his head and let her shove the forkful into his mouth. She giggled delightedly at him, covering her mouth with both hands and drawing her shoulders up to her ears.

"Thank you, Lily," he said with a small smile.

"You're welcome," she sang out before she once again sat on his knee and snuggled in, hugging him for playing along.

"How long has this been going on?" Gerry asked with a grin as he and Charlie came down.

" _Jealous_?" Lily challenged with a grin.

"Oh, definitely. Who doesn't want to spend time with Lily?" Gerry nodded seriously.

"I see you've met my little brother, Lily," Charlie said, smiling at the tiny blonde.

Lily shook her head. "Nuh-uh. He's not little."

"Yeah, but he's younger than me," Charlie said.

"So? He's not _little_."

"That's what you call someone who's younger. Little brother. Or little sister." She smiled and poked Lily in the stomach.

Lily giggled but gave her a tiny growl for the poke.

"You should play with Cody," Gerry suggested. "He hasn't gotten to play with any little kids in a _long_ time."

"Maybe later," she said, leaning her head on his chest. "We're havin' pancakes."

"Yes, you are," Charlie said, still smiling as she sat down on the other side of Chloe, who was still grinning as she watched her big brother.

Of course, with Lily so wrapped up in Cody, it wasn't long before Chelsea wanted to be part of the action, too, and she tugged on Chloe to get picked up so she could see Lily. "You gotta _biiiiig_ teddy," she told Lily seriously.

"Uh-huh," she said, perfectly happy as she lightly kicked her feet.

"Can I play too?" Chelsea asked, her eyes as big as she could get them.

Lily gave her a sideways look. "You gotta ask _Co-dy._ "

Chelsea looked up at Cody and batted her eyelashes in her best dramatic pout. "Can I play? Pweeeease?"

Cody looked between the two girls and simply nodded quietly in response, which got a delighted giggle out of Chelsea.

Annie beamed as she watched the two little girls lead Cody off and then sat down beside K, letting out all her breath.

"How are you holding up?" K asked her quietly.

"I miss my boy," Annie admitted with a sigh. "I know … he's here. And I'm _very_ grateful. I got my son back from the dead!" She shook her head. "But I miss my _boy_."

"I know exactly what you mean," K said with a nod.

Annie nodded. "With James," she said. "I remember."

"I'm honestly surprised he didn't try more than once."

"As I understand it, more than a few people let him know that my husband's life was at stake if he did so," Annie said mildly.

"That was just enough to start him thinking," K said. "That wouldn't have been enough on its own. But it was enough to get him through."

Annie rested a hand on K's arm and then went ahead and put her head on her shoulder too. "Your family is so wonderful to mine," she said. "I love you. So much."

"It goes both ways," K said. "And I think you know we love you too."

Annie smiled at her and ran her hands through her hair. "How is Elin? She and Chance went to bed last night, and I haven't seen either of them since."

"She's been hiding with him," K said. "They both got torn up pretty well."

"I'm sorry," Annie said. "It's hard when your kids are hurting."

She shrugged. "Not a thing anyone can do about it. It'll fade with some time."

"All of this will, hopefully," Annie said. She paused. "Well. Most of it. I know my boys are… changed."

"So are my two," K said. "Just have to see how much in the long run."

"Oh, I know psychologically — that's not—" Annie shook her head. "I meant… the _changes_."

"Yeah, well in that case, Elin's the one that got off easy, then," K said, nodding. "The boys will all cope."

"I didn't mean she got off easy," Annie said, letting out a sigh. "I just meant… that won't fade. It's so very permanent."

K gave her a look. "She got off easy. They all have psychological trauma, and that is almost always much worse than anything physical."

Annie let out a sigh and put her head back down on K's shoulder. "What are we going to do with our kids, K?"

"Back 'em up," K said. "They're tougher than we wanna give 'em credit for."

"Oh, absolutely." Annie looked toward the door that led out to the living room, where Scott had gone to be with Cody and the girls. "I don't think I've ever seen Scott cry like that when Cody came back," she said softly.

"He needed it."

"He did." Annie let out a breath and then squeezed K's arm. "I'm going to go sit with my boys."

"I'll be around," K promised.

* * *

Chance and Elin had sort of been hoping for some quiet, and for the most part, that had been the case. Even healed up, they were both looking for someplace to simply curl up. They were tired and still a little bit sore too.

Which was all well and good until Wade showed up.

Chance had no idea how Wade found out about what had happened; he just knew that he had been in the kitchen grabbing some more food — he was _so_ hungry still — and then the next thing he knew, Wade had rushed in to grab his arm and drag him into the hallway.

"Listen, tiny mini Summers," Wade said in a serious tone. "We gotta talk."

Chance pulled his arm out of Wade's grasp. "What are you talking about?"

"Listen, little brotha from another Summa's," Wade said, still perfectly seriously. "I heard you've recently found yourself in a _unique_ position." He chuckled and pulled him into a one-armed hug. "It's _so._ Exclusive. Just you and me, really. I mean. You could technically count the stabby girl-band, but really. _You and me_. Exclusive club. Ooh! We should get matching jackets!"

Chance was thrown off enough that he didn't even try to get out of the hug. "What are you … are you talking about the — how did you even…" He shook his head. "Wade, this was… not really…"

But Wade had shifted just slightly so that he was petting' Chance's hair. "I know. I know. Lot to take in. Lot to process. But don't … don't be like Uncle Wade, okay? Unless you really wanna — and I gotta say. Red. Would look. Fabulous on you."

Chance shook his head and tried to duck around him, though Wade had him in a pretty tight hug that was hard to get out of tactfully. "I'm not—"

"You are! And it's okay! We're all a little crazy, it's just … how you express it. And … I think you, ickle Summerses, would do well focusing it into your _ah-maaaaaayzing_ Tactical … whatever." He tipped his head to the side, and it was clear from the tone in his voice that he was frowning. "That's genetic, right? Tactics? Sticks? All that noise?"

"I've got tactics, yeah…." Chance said, still trying to get out from under Wade's arm.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, I hear you," Wade said, nodding. "So what else did you get, then? Outside of the dashing good looks and the whole … I swear. You kids were born with a disapproving look on your face."

"This is just my face," Chance said almost automatically.

"I know, and it works for you, right? I mean … kinda seems like catnip to our little stabby friends - amiright?"

"Only care about one of them," Chance said.

"Oh, that … is your first mistake — saying something like that. Especially when it's flat untrue. Gotta care about all of 'em or one of 'em will come back to bite you. Hard. And if it's the mama bear … you do _not_ want her biting you."

Chance shook his head at that. "Not what I — look, I'm alright. I appreciate the concern, really. I do."

Wade took him by both shoulders and made sure he was looking him squarely in the eyes. "Are you sure? Because … the whole being a normal person and then suddenly healing thing? It's rough. I know."

"Yeah." Chance met his gaze and then let out all his breath as he let his shoulders drop. "I wouldn't have been okay without Elin and Logan," he admitted. "There was a moment there when I couldn't even _think_."

"Well … I don't know what they said or didn't or .. whatever … but. You start hearing voices, you better tell someone that's _not_ in your head." He tapped the side of his head. "Gets a lil' bit busy up there."

"I… haven't … are you saying I'm going to…" Chance stared at Wade. "Are you serious?"

"Well … As far as I know, Logan doesn't have that problem. Or K. Or … any of the kids - _well, James maybe. He's a lil bit crazy still._ And I didn't have a master geneticist screwin' with _my_ helix … but …." Wade dropped all of the teasing and silliness to honestly get serious. "...I just want to watch out for you. I don't want you to deal with the crap I do."

Chance nodded along as Wade got serious. "I… I don't have any voices, but I'll let you know if that happens," he promised. "Right now, it's just a lot of being starving and tired."

Wade nodded, and it was pretty apparent that he was smiling under the mask. "We could totally have a support group, you know? I mean … when I got my lil' boost … it took a while to really work full bore … but man. That's kind of a wild sensation when you realize it's _incredibly hard_ to die."

"I didn't really think about it that way? More… just… it's … I dunno."

Wade clapped a hand down on Chance's shoulder. "Just wanna make sure that the girl you married gets to stay married to a Summers … and not feel like she got slipped a Wilson by mistake."

"Yeah, I want her to be alright through all this too," Chance said earnestly.

Wade grinned wider at him. "Good! You're gonna be together a _loooooong_ time!"

But at that, Chance totally stopped and then stared at Wade, a smile frozen at the corner of his mouth. "We… are," Chance said, looking totally floored and excited at the same time.

Wade was clearly grinning now, nodding slowly. "Eternal Summers! Roll credits!"

Chance broke into a sort of dazed laugh as he turned toward Wade, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Do you know what that _means_ for her? Do you really — I didn't even think about that aspect of it!" he said, getting more thrilled by the minute.

Wade booped him on the nose. "That's right, lil Summers. Go kiss your girl."

Chance grinned. "Hey, I don't need telling twice on _that_ ," he said before he simply ducked out of Wade's grasp and rushed off to find her.

Elin was going over a few of the latest reports when Chance came almost bursting in, grinning from ear to ear in a way neither of them really had since the Sinister thing.

"Elin — I didn't even think about — do you know what it _means_ that I can heal?" Chance blurted out, almost breathless.

"You still don't have a chance to beat me," she said, without missing a beat.

"No — it means I'm not going to get old without you," Chance explained, the grin widening with every word.

She stopped for a moment and just stared at him.

"It means if I leave you, it's not going to be in a hundred years when I'm old and gray — it's going to be when the world ends and we go with it!"

She shook her head at him as he came up to her and put both hands on either side of his head as he swept her up. "You … are so dramatic."

"And I am so right," he shot back, pulling her into a thrilled, excited kiss. "Just think about it. Really _think_."

"So I'm guessing that for now … that's going to be what your focus is when you heal," Elin said with a little laugh before she kissed him back.

"You? You're always gonna be my focus, El," he pointed out. "Healing or no."

She couldn't help but smile at him. "You're adorable when you're excited."

"I can't help it," he told her and kissed her again. "I promised you I'd do everything in my power to never hurt you, and here we just got handed a way to do that."

"Weren't exactly handed it," she told him, though he was in such a great mood, she just didn't want to let go of him either.

"Hey, screw Sinister. We can run with the good stuff if he's going to accidentally give us a long, happy life together," Chance said, kissing her all over again.

She waited until he seemed to slow down with the kisses. "And … how did you come to this conclusion? You're … probably not wrong, but where …"

"Oh, Wade came by to make sure I'm not… crazy," Chance admitted, dropping a bit of his elation, though he was still grinning widely.

"Uncle Wade?"

"Yeah, he told me he started hearing voices after he got his healing, so he wanted to make sure I wasn't — which, by the way, I'm not," Chance assured her quickly.

"Well … in all fairness, he was being tortured after they augmented him," Elin said. "It didn't work at all for him to start. They had to raise the stress levels first."

"Then whatever 'new method' Sinister was working on… must've worked," Chance said. "At least… part of it." He leaned over to kiss her again. "Plus, Wade didn't have anyone like _you_ around."

"No, he really didn't," Elin said, nodding. "He used to tell us that he met Lady Death - just before the healing kicked in."

"For the record? I did not," Chance said with one hand over his heart to show how serious he was.

"That's good," Elin said, nodding. "Because that would be totally weird if you met his 'ex'." She leaned forward. "Most everyone thinks he's nuts? But I think there was an actual psychic thing happening. They fell for each other."

"That's… kinda morbidly sweet," Chance said. He shook his head as he sat down with her. "In a weird way."

"And totally something that would happen to him," Elin said.

"Well, he's already offered to … I don't know. Look out for me, I guess," Chance said.

"If he's offered, then he's already set his mind to it," Elin told him. "You don't get a choice in it."

"Oh, so he _is_ related to you guys," Chance couldn't help but tease.

She shoved him in the shoulder. "You're kind of awful sometimes."

"But you're stuck with me _forever_ ," he said, grinning crookedly before he kissed her all over again — because he just couldn't get over that part.

* * *

When Charlie told Chance that she and Hope were planning to ambush Nate, Chance was immediately on board. He was only just starting to feel less foggy about everything that had happened after a good night's sleep, so the idea of troublemaking was the perfect distraction.

And besides, he did _actually_ have a question for Nate, though he didn't want to worry Charlie about the whole… possibly turning into Wade… thing.

So, Charlie went to go find James, and Hope projected to Chance where they were so he could join them. From there, Hope let Nate know that Chance was internally freaking out about Wade's experience with a similar procedure, and the players were all converging.

And so was Wade.

"Oooh, it's my favorite people — well, some of them, anyway. Top favorites in the second generation. Obviously not including _mine_ …" Wade grinned and then hugged James first, picking him up and making exaggerated noises. "Aaaauuuuggghhh. They grow up and gain a hundred pounds too fast."

"Hundred and twenty-ish, Uncle Nutso," James said. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, you see, I have a bat signal in my cave that lets me know when someone is infused with healing from your family…"

"The one with the rubber chicken and two katana?" James asked, since he knew how to roll with Wade's lunacy easily enough.

Wade touched his nose and then touched James's nose. "Exactly! That one! And it told me there was a new healer who needed introducing to the super-exclusive club!"

James paused, then blinked a few times before he looked over to Chance. " _Oh_. Is that … a concern … like something went sideways?"

Chance rubbed the back of his neck. "Not so far," he promised. "I had a little brain fuzz when it was going on, but everything seems to have settled. I think?"

"Have you been hearing voices?" James asked, turning toward Chance, and Wade turned with him, one finger on his chin.

Chance shook his head quickly. "Nothing like that," he swore.

"Hallucinations? Delusions of Sanity?"

Chance closed one eye. "Unless you count the part where I was reliving Viper as a hallucination?" he said, still half wincing.

"Were you seeing her?" James asked, one eyebrow raised.

"...maybe?" Chance bit his lip. "I could have sworn I was in her lab, and then, Elin pointed out the Marauder…"

"Yeah, but did you _see_ her?" James asked, and Wade took a position a step behind James, echoing his body language and doing his best to look studious.

Chance was quiet for a long time. "See… to me, it seemed like I was with Viper, on her table, and then Marauders were dragging me around."

"That sounds more like confusion on where you were," James said, crossing his arms over his chest. He wasn't exactly on board for socializing, but so far, the company could be a lot worse.

Chance let his shoulders drop in relief. "That's what me and Elin were thinking at the time. I mean, it was a pretty similar situation."

James looked thoughtful as he considered Chance. "That might just be more like a trauma-induced flashback."

"I hope so," Chance said. "You'll let me know if I start acting nuts, though, right?"

"You're nuts."

"Thanks, James. That was really helpful. I appreciated this talk of ours."

"But you're not _crazy_ ," James said as if that was clarifying. He thumbed over his shoulder. "He's both."

"That's is true and accurate," Wade agreed.

"It is," Hope said, grinning as she showed up with Nate and waved at Chance. "Heard you projecting panic over here."

Chance smiled ruefully. "To be fair, it's worth panicking over. Elin doesn't deserve someone who's not living in the right moment, you know?"

"You're so sweet," Wade said as James took a step back from the group on seeing Nate with Hope.

"If you're having a Summers slumber party, I'll just _go_ ," James said.

Hope smiled his way, putting a hand on his shoulder as she passed — and stole Charlie's power, cheating with telepathy as well to effectively show Nate _exactly_ how James felt not only generally but specifically upon seeing Nate. It was enough to actually set Nate back a step, even after James had gone.

Hope turned toward Nate with both eyebrows raised. _Well?_

_That's… there's no reason for him to react like that._

_Dad, that's exactly why Grannie Annie was so mad at you._

Nate raised an eyebrow her way. _Grannie Annie?_

_She loves this name. I'm using it. And that's not the point, and you know it._

_If he was going to act on it, Billy would have-_

_Also not the point,_ Hope said, rolling her eyes. _But that's what Charlie's been hearing. Just so you know. She's beyond upset._

Nate looked toward Charlie, who was biting her lip and watching the two of them, though when she saw him look her way, she said, softly, "You felt it, right?" When Nate nodded slightly, she let out her breath. "So, you'll be more careful with him, right? Please?"

"What did I miss?" Chance asked as he looked between Nate and Charlie.

"Cody's having a hard time after Sinister affected his perception of James. Nate showed James what happened." Charlie took a deep breath, but before she could go on, Chance had already turned toward Nate with a dumbfounded look.

" _Hey_. I can't lose another brother after I just got this one back," Chance said heatedly.

"I thought he was past any danger," Nate said.

"I could have told you he wasn't," Charlie said softly. "I can help, you know. If you let me."

Nate held up one hand as he shook his head. "I was under the impression that Billy had gotten through to him and that was in the rearview."

Wade nodded along slowly. "Hate to tell you, sunshine — that's a long-term, full-time kinda mental health problem. Sorta like your genetic stick. I mean, you rock the look. Absolutely the sexiest stick alive, when we're rating them. But you got one."

When Nate shook his head, obviously a little frustrated by the fact that Hope was actively helping them team up on him. "He'll be fine."

"You're so lucky you're my brother or I'd have hit you by now," Charlie said, rolling her eyes. "Hope, your dad is an idiot. You know that, right? I mean, I love him to absolute pieces and owe him my sanity a hundred times over, but he's an idiot."

"Not the first time I've heard that," Hope said.

"As long as you know," Charlie said, then hopped over to where Nate was and pulled on his arm until he, almost automatically, leaned down for her so she could kiss his cheek. "Love you, Nate. You know that, right? I just want you to be careful."

"Yeah." Nate shook his head at her, though when she darted in for the hug, he tucked her in under his arm all the same and looked over her head to Chance and Wade. "You're calling yourself an expert for my little brother?" he asked Wade.

"Um … I don't see anyone else in this room with _extensive_ healing factor experience," Wade said haughtily.

"And he started out human too," Chance pointed out, once again rubbing the back of his neck. "And… I wasn't _actually_ lying about being worried…"

"But I also started out with a doctor _way_ less dedicated than what you had," Wade pointed out. "My guy was … well, he was the equivalent of a chain-smoking monkey with a screwdriver as far as finesse went." He patted Chance's shoulder. "Your guy _actually_ knew what he was doing." He looked squarely at Nate for emphasis. "You'll be _fine."_

Charlie snorted. "Nice."

Chance smirked, too, though he kept his gaze on Nate. "Can you check all the same?" he asked Nate. "I know I was fuzzy for a while. I know it. I didn't feel like I had all the pieces until recently."

"I will," Nate promised. "Every timeline that I can find that you have this ability. I'll check them."

Chance let his shoulders drop. " _Thank you_ ," he said in a breath and then went ahead and hugged Nate's other side too before he met Charlie's gaze. Without a word, the twins nodded, and they headed off the way James had gone to find him and make sure he wasn't slipping any further.


	10. The Blame Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which recovery isn't always pretty.

The next morning, Cody woke up early. For just a moment, he couldn't figure out where he was, and he couldn't help but panic, wondering if he was supposed to be doing something or if this was a test — before he recognized some of his puzzles hanging in the room and remembered where he was.

He closed his eyes and let out a long breath. Now that he wasn't riding the high of adrenaline and exhaustion from the initial rescue, reality was going to take a lot of getting used to.

He would usually wake up about this time and have some breakfast and tea, so that's where he went, heading down to the kitchen quietly. He didn't want to wake anyone else up.

Logan and K were the only ones awake and already in the kitchen — and coffee was brewed. The two of them were chatting and flirting between themselves when Cody came in, and K gave him a little smile. "Morning, sunshine."

Cody nodded her way as he went to the fridge. "Good morning," he said. He pulled out the butter and raspberry jam as he said it.

"How about I make you a little breakfast?" K offered. "We were just talking about omelettes."

Cody paused and then nodded. "Alright," he said.

"What would you like in it?" K asked.

"I'll eat whatever you make," he said. "I can make the tea too."

"I'm sure, but … why don't you at least pick your veggies," K said.

"What do you want? I'll get it for you."

K smirked at him and shook her head. She didn't think he realized that even _small_ decisions were hard for him, to the point of defaulting to what he was told. For something as simple as breakfast, she was willing to push harder, to try to get him thinking on his own again. "I've got mine figured out already. And Logan's. I'm asking what _you_ want." She gestured to the fridge. "Your call. We have ham and sausage too."

He frowned her way before he nodded and went to the fridge. "Alright."

K and Logan shared a little smile, and the two of them simply got to work as if this was all perfectly normal. When Cody had grabbed a few things from the fridge, he set them down beside K before he went back to put some water on and leaned back against the counter as he waited. The two ferals were working up their breakfasts between them, but it was Logan that broke the ice. "So how are you handling this? Everyone smothering you right?"

Cody smirked lightly. "Yeah, Chloe and Charlie and Mom are just… yeah." He let out a breath. "There are a lot of changes to get used to."

"Let 'em know if it's too much," Logan said.

"It's not like I can tell Chloe to stop being taller. Or Dad to stop…" He trailed off and shook his head as he instead went to get a tea bag.

"Yeah, I've been trying to get your Dad to stop that for a _long_ time," Logan said dryly.

"I meant the ...the chair," Cody said quietly. "He … how long has that…?"

Logan and K shared a look and K let out a breath. "Well. It's been a while now."

"What happened?" Cody asked as he took his tea with him to sit down.

K met his gaze and couldn't find a way to really sugarcoat it. "He lost his son." Still, she did her best to put it in more context. "It wasn't _just_ that. There were already big losses — he was pretty sure Logan and I were on our way out. James too. And then …"

Cody frowned at that and sat down a little more heavily than he'd intended. "Oh."

"He had another heart attack," Logan clarified. "And while they were in there working on that, he had a little stroke. _But that wasn't your fault_."

"Oh," Cody said again, nodding quietly to himself.

"You've missed a lot," K said. "But … we'll tell you anything you want to know. No secrets."

"Thanks," Cody said quietly, staring down at the liquid in his cup and falling silent after that.

It wasn't too long before K handed him his omelette and tried to pull him out of the guilt she could already see building around him. "It would have been worse if we hadn't had the right people around. Or if James had managed to die, too."

"Yeah, it could have been worse," Cody said without really looking up.

"Your dad can get around alright without the chair," Logan said. "Just not all the time."

"That's good," Cody said.

"He especially gets around better when he's using Logan for a crutch," K added.

"I'm glad he has you guys," he said, still not looking up and taking his cup in a tighter grip with every half-whispered word to the ferals.

"I'm glad he's got you," Logan said without missing a beat.

Cody was quiet for a long time before he glanced up at Logan. "Am I going to give him another one?" he asked in a whisper.

"How? By being here? I'm pretty sure no one strokes out over bein' happy." He paused and then turned to K. "But if that's a thing, I wanna sign up for it."

"You'd be dead a hundred times over," K replied in a low tone with a sly smile that had Logan smirking.

"I ... it was a big surprise," Cody said, "me coming back. And… and I'm not…"

"Your dad couldn't be happier," Logan said. "Doesn't matter what's changed. You're here."

Cody nodded and dropped his gaze again.

"You're not the only one that got screwed up from that whole mess," Logan added. "And yes, I'm counting it as part of the Apocalypse thing."

 _But I'm the only one who agreed to it,_ Cody projected his way.

 _Not entirely,_ Logan countered, slipping seamlessly into a telepathic conversation when he and K knew that was what Cody was comfortable with if he felt he needed to express how he _actually_ felt. _James said he didn't fight Apocalypse either._

_Sinister asked me, and I said 'yes'._

_What were your other options? Pain? More suffering? Extra showings of the crap he pulled? I know his tricks. And when I met him the first time, I was a helluva lot more naive than you were._

Cody looked down at his plate. _Dad told him no. I didn't stop him._

 _He wanted me to join him,_ Logan projected. _After the girl I'd fallen for died. And I nearly went with him. You didn't do anything any normal person wouldn't have._

"I rolled over for her," Cody bit out at last, glaring up at Logan. "And I should have been here instead. With my dad."

"You thought he was already dead, didn't you?" Logan asked. "Who else did you think was gone?"

Cody frowned at that. _She said Rachel killed everyone,_ he said. _And… James killed the ones hidden away._

 _The only one Rachel_ nearly _killed was James. And he nearly did himself in after the fact._

Cody's head came up fast at that, and he looked openly upset. _I saw it. Sinister showed me what happened, and I know it wasn't real. Nate ..._

 _James told me what Nate did. And he told me you know everything that Rachel did. I owe Nate a swift kick for that little trick, too. I'm glad you got to see the truth, Cody, and I'm glad you're here, but I swear to God if you start actin' like Nate, I'm gonna slap you._ Logan shook his head. _The important thing is that both you and James are_ here _. And you're tryin' to get back to yourselves. We're all here for you. You know that, right?_

Cody stared at Logan for a long moment before he simply stood up from his seat. "Yes. I know. Thank you, K," he said softly. "For the breakfast."

"Any time," K said softly. "And we're here if you have _more_ questions. Even if you need to keep it all psychic."

Cody nodded lightly before he took his dishes to the sink and then simply slipped out of the room, though he didn't quite make it back up the stairs before Rachel caught up to him.

 _K or Logan sent you, right?_ he said without turning her way.

 _Neither. You were projecting. But I wish they would_ wait _before telling people everything,_ Rachel replied.

 _I asked them,_ Cody said. _And it wasn't anything that I wasn't told already. Not really._

Rachel let out a sigh. _Yes. but there's answering questions tactfully and just … spilling._

Cody shrugged lightly. _It's fine. I asked them a question, and I needed to know the answer. Now I do._

"I still feel like there is an easier to process middle ground," Rachel said. "Those two can be as subtle as a sledgehammer."

 _And Nate's a delicate southern breeze?_ Cody let out a breath. "What do you want, Rachel?"

"I want to make sure you're alright. And seeing as I know you're not … Hi, little brother."

"Hi," he said.

"What can I clarify for you?" Rachel asked. _Or do I need to just skim your memories and thoughts to see for myself?_

_No offense, Rachel, but I don't really want anyone in my head right now._

_Then you should probably just tell me what it is that's bothering you._

Cody shook his head at that. _Rachel, I let Sinister run my life. For a long time. I let Dad think I was dead._

_And as soon as you knew that he'd lied to you, then what happened?_

_Then K and the others rescued me._

_So … Elin is a liar then? She told me that you fought back and got yourself restrained for your troubles._

_Not really effective. I've spent the past year honing my powers, and I failed utterly._

_But you tried to stand up for your brother and sister-in-law, right? Because to hear Elin tell her side of it_ — _it's her fault that we thought you were dead._

Cody frowned at that. "She has it wrong," he said. "Sinister waited until the right moment."

"She and Chance found the body," Rachel said. "She is convinced that she should have realized … the scent issue is driving her nuts."

Cody frowned at that. "I don't know how to argue that," he said. "But I know Sinister wouldn't have left even that to chance."

"No one knows how to argue that. But she won't hear any argument anyhow," Rachel told him.

"It was my fault, not hers," Cody said.

"Pretty sure she'd fight you on it," Rachel said.

"I had opportunities to leave. I wasn't restrained all the time, you know," Cody said quietly.

"I know how Sinister handled Dad," she said. "And you were most definitely captive."

"Dad always got out, though," Cody said.

"And Sinister wouldn't have augmented you at all if he wasn't convinced that you weren't going to fight him." She gestured at him as a whole. "He took away your free will. Don't try to take responsibility when you were unable to make a choice."

"Rachel…" He shook his head and didn't mean to project the rest of it, but she heard it all the same, _I screwed up Dad._

_No, you didn't. Dad screwed up Dad. Decades of stressing himself out beyond the realm of normal human tolerances as a baseline screwed up Dad. If it wasn't you, then it would have been James. Or Logan or the next big thing. It was going to happen anyhow._

Cody shook his head. _I should have come back._

_Do you need to talk to the harbinger? Or Nate? Because I can get them._

_I know what happened, Rachel._

_Then you should be able to see how much it will tear him up if you keep beating yourself up over this._

"It's my. Fault," Cody said, his tone almost sharp as he spun toward her.

"No. It's _Sinister's_ fault. I know you were tight with James, but _stop_. Sounding. Like a Howlett."

"Even the Howletts know not to let Sinister run them over!" Cody shot back, letting his voice rise as he gestured toward the kitchen.

"And you're focusing on the wrong thing," Rachel said.

"Every single day I wasn't fighting him, I should have been," Cody said. "Dad did. Logan did. Even Charlie did. You _know_ that."

"And every one of them — except Charlie — has had this same kind of guilt over some decision or another. You want to blame yourself and hold onto it that hard — fine. But you need to work toward moving past it and fixing whatever you can." She shook her head hard. "I'm getting tired of having this same argument over. _And over_."

Cody blinked at her for a moment and seemed to very quickly deflate. He'd been caught up in his emotions, but now, he was practically screaming projecting that he hadn't meant to raise his voice and that he wasn't _allowed_ to have outbursts like that. "I'm sorry. I wasn't — I'm sorry. I'm not trying to make things hard for — I'm sorry."

She let out a frustrated sort of noise and reached over to hit him in the shoulder. "Stop that."

He took a step back. "I—"

Rachel stuck a finger in Cody's face. "You're not responsible for everything. You were _sixteen_ years old, and you were being manipulated by a man that has been doing this for well over a century. You. _Were not_. In. Control. And if I hear one more word about how screwed up you are, I'm gonna slap you. Go talk to Charlie and let her tell you about your song. She was _elated_ to hear it again. So just … stop trying to feel guilty for _living_. Especially when we're all celebrating that you're with us again! Not one person here is mad at you. Not a _one._ "

Cody looked wide-eyed as he watched Rachel before he simply nodded. "I just… it's a lot," he said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"We're all just glad you're alive," Rachel told him before she took a few steps forward and then decided to give him a hug — like it or not.

Which seemed to be exactly what Cody needed after an argument like that as he melted into the hug, still shaken up over thinking his anger had gotten him in trouble and relieved to have someone around to hold onto.

* * *

With most of the mansion tied up dealing with Cody's reintroduction to the house, James took the opportunity to get out for a few hours. He'd been half ignoring Alyssa's texts … letting them sit there for long stretches of time before he answered them after he'd hit the wall with Nate. Everyone was pitching in to help Cody, but even after the explanation with Nate, when James had tried to take his turn, Cody had still been a bit gunshy — though he was trying hard to hide it.

All in all, James was pretty sure that his presence wasn't really adding much in a helpful way, and he _knew_ it was dragging him down. So instead of toughing it out or letting himself slide further into his depression and self-guessing, he reached out to Alyssa — and was sure to bring her flowers before he took her out for sushi, as was almost their usual thing to do at this point.

It was a nice break from the mansion, if he was being honest. After spending so much time with Stark and Richards and Banner … he just wasn't used to the 24/7 hustle and bustle of everyone's families. His family _tried_ to keep it low-key even if trouble found them, but it felt like the Summerses _exuded_ stress, and the truth was, he wasn't prepared to process it just then without blaming himself for some large measure of it. And it had taken him this long to really acknowledge it and decide on a plan of action to deal with it.

It wasn't that he didn't like being at the mansion — _home_. Or that he wanted out, necessarily. It was simply overwhelming to someone who had spent so much time for so long alone. And when that realization hit him on the way to get Alyssa, he realized he needed to make sure Cody had a way to take a break too. Well-intentioned as they were, the Summers clan could be overwhelming when they were showing their relief by dogpiling on you.

But … Alyssa was in high spirits when she saw him, grinning, bubbly, and a little ray of sunshine that was desperately needed when he'd been so low. She'd gushed about the flowers and planted a kiss 'hello' that had him smiling against her mouth before it had ended, and after they'd headed out, she'd shifted to telling him about the summer classes she was taking. Nothing too difficult, but she was making an effort at tearing through core classes in the shortened semester.

"I guess I'm just irritated," Alyssa said finally. "My sister told me that her English 101 was all response essays, but the syllabus …" She let out an irritated sound and shook her head. "It's all … sexist, stupid … trash!"

James smiled her way and watched her as she rested her chin on her palm and worked at picking up part of her rainbow roll. "Every teacher has their own way to do it," James told her, happy to have a more age-appropriate problem to handle. "Nothing you can do about it — just work through it. At least it's a short session."

"I really don't like the books we've been assigned," Alyssa said. "My professor is obsessed with stories that just … they make me uncomfortable."

"What's on your book list?" James had to ask, and wasn't surprised at all when Alyssa pulled it up on her phone and pushed it toward him. He took a moment to read through them and frowned at the list when he saw the directions this professor had chosen to take. He himself hadn't read most of those on the list because of their _content_. "Well, there's your trouble." It was clear that the professor was transfixed on a few themes that made James want to bite back a growl. Almost half of the grade was dedicated to Nobokov's _Lolita_ … but that wasn't the only questionable choice. He frowned at several that romanticized slavery and couldn't help but look entirely irritated when _Memoirs of a Geisha_ was framed to be 'empowering'.

He looked up at her, still frowning slightly. "Has anyone said anything to the dean about this moron?"

She shook her head lightly. "I doubt it," Alyssa said, and James let out the slightest of growls that really only got Alyssa to smile at him. "It's sweet that it bothers you that much."

"The guy's a weirdo and a pervert," James said, though for the moment, he turned his attention to his dinner. "You should get into a different class that's not being run by a top notch slimeball."

She smiled wider and reached across the table to offer him her hand. "I don't know that I'd be able to catch up. I'm already a few weeks in, and the drop date is this week."

"I'll help you," James said as he took her hand. "You can do it; it's just writing, and you _are_ a journalist."

"And if I do that, my webcast will fall apart until I get through the class," she said, then shook her head. "It'll be fine."

James gave her hand a little squeeze. "What about if I help with that too?"

"What have you got in mind?" she asked, frowning his way.

James shrugged. "I dunno. I'm sure we can figure something out."

She bit her bottom lip and thought it over. "Okay … but … what about my idea of a live webcast …"

James stopped and looked up at her for a moment. "You want me to help you with a live broadcast?"

"Only if my views slip _very_ badly. And you _want_ to," she said. "I'm actually looking forward more to you helping with my reports."

"Study date," James said, nodding slowly.

"That's the idea."

He met her gaze and gave her a crooked smile. "You want to _pass_ this class, right?" She burst out laughing at that and scooted over to his side of the table to steal a kiss and snuggle up to him.

"You know … eventually. I could always just finish this class with the creepy teacher and you can help me anyhow." She gave him a little squeeze — but for an instant, his muscles tightened up, and he cringed slightly away. "What happened?" She shifted the way she was sitting and simply rested her hand on his side, trying to see where it was bothering him without outright lifting his shirt.

"Nothing to see," he promised as he put his arm around her and pulled her in for a hug that he didn't flinch from. "I'm all healed, I promise. It was just a fluke… phantom thing."

She frowned at that. "Phantom … like phantom _pain_?" Her eyes widened when he nodded his head.

"I got a little banged up the other day helping Elin and Chance- " He stopped and took a cleansing breath. "You know what? Just … chalk it up to a mission that was hairy."

"But it went okay?"

"Went great. Good guys won. Soundly." He was nodding along with his answer. "Not even big enough to really get into."

Alyssa let out a breath at that. "Good." She reached over and picked up a piece of _hamachi_ and turned to feed it to him. "You're sure you're healed?"

James nodded at that. "I was healed before we landed," he explained. "Whole thing only took a few hours."

"Then what gives?"

He finished the yellowtail that she'd given him, then took a moment to explain why sometimes — but not always — he'd have some pain to deal with well after the mission and the healing was over. "It's just … part of my mutation." he leaned over to give her a kiss. "It's fine. Always been like that when it's bad. It would have been a lot worse if it had been someone else taking the hit. Don't worry about it."

The rest of their dinner was quiet, and instead of a movie, Alyssa had an idea of her own. "So. I brought a blanket," she said with a little smile. "There's a meteor shower going on — or at least, that's what they say pretty much everywhere online. Wanna do a little stargazing?"

James smirked a little wider at that. "I think I have a good spot — unless you have an idea on a location." But when she shook her head, it was plain that she was hoping he'd know about a private spot that could reasonably use stargazing as an excuse.

* * *

Leslie Ann had been a little nervous about going to see Jana, simply because Rachel had let her know that Jana was still struggling with … everything. Rachel and Hank both had been working with her to get her used to the basics of existing, but now, they were trying to get her to remember how to be _Jana_.

Which meant that they were trying to pull in parts of her old life. And since Leslie Ann had been her best friend, she was one of the top choices.

So, Leslie Ann poked her head in to find that Remy and Rachel were still with Jana - they really had their work cut out for them and hadn't left her alone. "Hey," she said with a small smile, waving at her friend as she came in and shut the door behind her. It was a relief to see her without the red glow to her eyes or the diamond on her forehead, though she still looked pale and a little drawn. Still, it was easier to see her as Jana and not Sinister — and that was a crucial distinction when Leslie Ann knew she wasn't fully recovered from all she'd been through with Apocalypse. She didn't need to drag _that_ into Jana's recovery.

Jana picked up her head and then nodded. _Hey_.

Leslie Ann raised her eyebrows Rachel's way for a moment, and Rachel simply let out a sigh. _Projecting is easier than talking right now. Just run with it._

Leslie Ann nodded as she sat down across from Jana. She'd been thinking for a long time about what she'd say, and she'd settled on reassuring her that none of it was her fault — since it had taken her a long time to get that through her head with Apocalypse. But that went out the window when she saw how withdrawn Jana looked.

And in an instant, she simply rushed over and threw her arms around her friend, pulling her into a tight hug. "I missed you," she said.

Jana looked totally caught off-guard by the hug, but Leslie Ann didn't really give her a choice in the matter and didn't let up until Jana returned it lightly. _Hello, Leslie Ann._

Leslie Ann finally let go of Jana for a moment before she let out all her breath. "Nobody blames you," she said quickly. "It's not your fault."

 _So I've been told,_ Jana said, shifting slightly to sit a bit apart from Leslie Ann, still looking at her funny like she couldn't believe she'd just gotten the stuffing hugged out of her.

"Well, it wasn't," Leslie Ann insisted. She made herself comfortable sitting by Jana as she pulled out her phone. "If I'd known I was going to get my best friend back, I would have put off the wedding just a few more months," she said.

_The what?_

Leslie Ann grinned Jana's way. "Yes, see, this is what happens when you're tucked away in this little room," she said. "You miss important things like the fact that I've got a cute boy in my life. His name's David. He's a genius."

Jana stared at Leslie Ann for a long moment, obviously unsure of how to proceed with her. _I_ — _he didn't know that,_ she said. _So, when did it happen?_

"After Apocalypse," Leslie Ann said. "I needed someone to help me recover, and David needed someone to listen to him bounce ideas off of thin air."

"David … who?"

Leslie Ann beamed at her friend, glad that her strategy of simply throwing new information at Jana until she was too shocked not to respond aloud had worked. "Oh, you know, the tech genius in Chicago — the one who was running that fansite?" She grinned. "He's still running it, by the way. It's his baby."

Jana's smile flickered for a moment. "You're … you're kidding, right?"

"Would I come in here and see my best friend for the first time in, like, a _decade_ and _lie_ to her? Come on, Jana," Leslie Ann couldn't help but tease. "After Apocalypse, he had, like, a whole subforum dedicated to all of the Horsemen and the good that we'd done to show that we weren't ourselves — and it's still there. People still contribute stories."

Jana stared at Leslie Ann and then slowly shook her head. "Sounds right."

"He's really sweet. I'll have to tell you the proposal story," Leslie Ann said, leaning further back and making herself comfortable — so engrossed in her storytelling that she completely missed the looks passing between Remy and Rachel, who were both clearly pleased by how well this was going.

Leslie Ann dove into the whole story of how she and David got together, starting from the Asgardian flower and running with it from there. She didn't even notice how late it was until her voice started to get tired out from all the talking, and by that time, Jana had relaxed substantially and was even smiling through the stories on occasion.

"Okay, well, I'm going to have to come back tomorrow," Leslie Ann decided. "Because I still haven't even told you about, like, _half_ of what's been going on while you've been gone. The Avengers, the X-Men, my sister having _kids_ … You are so behind."

"Clearly," Jana said, shaking her head at Leslie Ann a bit.

"I'll bring snacks next time," Leslie Ann promised as she got to her feet. She almost suggested that they could watch some basketball, but considering the fact that Jana had been seriously dating Brandon before all of this happened ... and Brandon was now a pro player and married to someone else… Leslie Ann wasn't so sure that was a good idea.

 _Thanks for coming, Leslie Ann,_ Rachel projected to her as she headed for the door.

 _Hey, I've been through it. Not_ this _bad, but I've been through it. You have me for whatever she needs,_ Leslie Ann promised with a smile before she headed off to go find David.

"So much like Gerry now," Rachel said, shaking her head. "How did that little bit of sunshine rub off?"

"He marry into the family," Remy said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And then the sunshine got _all_ over de place."

"It doesn't work like that, and you know it," Rachel said in a flat voice.

" _Non_?" Remy said with a little smirk her way. "Mebbe you jus' don' see it."

"If that was the case, Dad would be pulling practical jokes."

"Hey, ain't nobody got powers enough to pull of _dat_ much of a miracle," Remy said.

"Go talk to your daughter," Rachel said, shaking her head.

"Yes ma'am, lil' fearless," Remy said with an easy smile as he passed her.


	11. Every Little Bit Helps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cody has a good future if he can keep up the good work.

Word traveled fast through the groups of heroes that Cody was back and Jana was free of Sinister. Everyone was obviously relieved, of course, but what Natasha and Clint in particular hadn't been expecting was Zoe's reaction to the news.

Which was to promptly start crying — except without realizing it. So she didn't know to hide her face until Nikki piped up. "Wow, Zoe. You always this choked up?"

"Oh, shut up, Nikki," Zoe said, wiping her face with the heels of her hands. "It's just nice for something to go right for once, okay? Go back to your stupid SHIELD-prep homework."

Nikki twirled the pencil in between his fingers and grinned crookedly. "Code breaking, Zo."

"Whatever. Nerd."

"Ooh, nice comeback. How will I ever recover from being teased for being smart and focused?"

"Just don't look in a mirror," Zoe said. "That'd put you back where you belong."

"At least my freckles are real."

"At least I don't have to work too hard to be unrecognizable."

"Gee, didn't take you for a human hater, Zo. Just because you have powers…"

"No, just you when you're being a dork, so … often."

"Better up my game if it's only 'often'."

"You know, you're lucky SHIELD doesn't have a maturity test - you'd never make junior agent."

"Yeah, have you _met_ Peter Parker?"

"Which is probably why there's no screening for that," Zoe said before she shoved him in the shoulder.

"Alright, girls, you're both pretty," Clint said, chuckling to himself.

"Not true," Zoe said. "One of us is — and it's not _him_."

"True," Nikki said without missing a beat. "I left pretty in the dust, like, two years ago."

"Only according to that one creepy woman at your _work_ ," Zoe said dryly. "How old was she again? 50? 60?"

"Forty-seven and no, it was the hot guy on the team that went in on the SR mission last time."

"The _older_ guy," she said, crossing her arms and sure that it wasn't something her parents wanted to hear about. "So does that make your codename 'Jailbait' or 'Cougar Chow'?"

"Seriously, Zo? You're crossing some lines here."

"Why? Because I'm winning?" Zoe shot back.

"So you want me to make jokes about the guy who grabbed your _ass_ last time you were out with the Avengers?" Nikki shot back.

"Are you saying the old lady and the old guy were grabbing you?" Zoe asked.

"Just saying one of us has actually had a worse problem if you're gonna be deputizing 'Jailbait'."

"Assault isn't the same," Zoe said, waving a hand. "You were flirting back — since you know how old she was and referred to him as hot. Totally different."

"Um, _he_ was hot. And thirty. Not as big a deal. She got dressed down by someone else."

"Mom — ruling. Is thirty too old for little Nikki?" Zoe said. "He doesn't seem to think it's problematic."

"There is no way that this is actually the conversation you both want to have right now," Natasha said. "And you both _know_ the answer to that."

"And if you don't, Peter's getting a visit from the Black Widow to prevent, you know, _problems_ ," Clint said, leaning against the wall and watching the back and forth with a smirk.

"He'll be getting a visit anyhow," Natasha said. "Since it sounds like some of his lower-level agents don't understand the sexual harassment clauses of their contracts."

"Or how to count to, you know, at least eighteen," Clint said — mostly because he liked to wind his wife up when she had a cause to fight. "Twice as old as you, Nik. You know better too."

"They'll remember when they lose a couple of fingers," Natasha said.

"See?" Clint gestured toward Natasha. "Okay, so, Nikki, you and me are gonna have a chat. Zo… don't stop tattling on your brother when he thinks he can date grown adults, mkay?"

"I'm his big sister," Zoe said, one hand over her heart. "I am worried for his _well-being_."

"Well-being my second-favorite shoelace," Nikki muttered under his breath.

By that time, Zoe was half smiling as Clint and Nikki left. She'd _needed_ that picking session … even if it had been irritating to start with. "So, how grounded is he, do you think?" she asked her mom offhandedly.

"Not as grounded as you'd like him to be," Natasha said. "Especially since he pointed out how upset you were — or relieved. _Emotional_ at any rate." She tipped her head as Zoe shifted under her gaze. "What happened?"

Zoe lost her smile entirely. "I dunno," she said, rubbing her upper arm. "I grew up with Cody, okay? It hit harder than losing Kitty, you know?"

"Is that all?" Natasha asked, not at all looking like she believed that was the full story.

"Well, yeah," Zoe said.

"Zoe."

"Okay, so he was, like, the closest friend I had while I was in Westchester learning about my powers, okay? I missed him."

Natasha considered her for a moment. "And …"

"And what, Mom? I'm allowed to get emotional, right?"

"And I think it's more than that," Natasha said.

Zoe turned toward Natasha fully. "Like _what_?"

"If you think that I don't recognize my _own_ patterns in my daughter, you're selling me short," Natasha said. "That was pure relief. And not over a _friend_."

"Mom, you're reading _way_ too much into this because of the whole thing with Nikki-"

"No, I'm not," Natasha said. "I saw the reaction before Nikki did." She paused. "And it looked very familiar to me."

Zoe bit her lip, knowing where Natasha was going and yet convinced she was wrong. "Seriously, Mom, he's been dead a year."

"How long exactly?"

"A year, three months, and fifteen-" Zoe stopped. "Um. A while."

Natasha leaned toward her. "You're in love. Do yourself a favor: save yourself some heartache and either admit it and do something about it or cut _all_ ties."

"What?" Zoe shook her head. "He just got back from over a year of slavery and _that's_ your advice?"

"Pick a path, sweetheart." Natasha poured herself a cup of tea. "I'm not saying you have to act on it yet if you admit it … but you should make a plan of action at minimum. If you don't want to do anything but pine over him, cut your losses and move on. You don't need to be an X-Man. Ever."

"Harsh," Zoe said, though she was smirking.

"It's true, though," Natasha said. "But … you should probably see him in person before you decide. It's entirely possible that he's mentally damaged now and not anyone you'd _want_ after being stuck with Sinister for so long."

"Wow, Mom, you think I'm that shallow?" Zoe rolled her eyes.

"It's not shallow," Natasha said. "You don't need to be burdened with a head case if that's what the situation is."

"With _our_ family history? Are you nuts?"

She sighed patiently. "Not everyone can take a hit like your father." She shrugged. "Mentally-compromised Summers could be a disaster best avoided."

"At least let me find out—" She paused. "I mean, you and Dad were the ones who even knew he was alive. What's the word? They must have told the Avengers more than just 'he's back', right?"

"I haven't seen him yet, and Logan is being tight-lipped." She took a sip of her tea looking perfectly unconcerned. "That could go either way."

Zoe let out a frustrated breath and ran her hand down her face. "Are you sure… I mean…"

"See him first … then follow your gut. Don't second-guess yourself."

Zoe let all her breath out at once. "Okay. Don't tell Nikki, please?"

"Why would I? He seems to think it's alright for a 30-year-old to hit on him. He has no business bothering anyone who might have a chance at an actual love life."

"Love you too, Mom."

* * *

It was really just a matter of time before Alyssa ended up doing much of her studying at the Institute. She wanted James' help — and between team practices and playing catch up with Stark on how to fix the hole in his coding, James' time was once again at a premium.

Not that he was going to let that stop him. It really only meant that he had to clear her to come and spend time — a much easier prospect now that it was summertime and no one was really _there_ that didn't live there.

The two of them had set up in the library, since that was where all the open reference material was, and it was incredibly quiet anyhow. Of course, even though she was getting the quiet she needed, she was more than a little distracted between the massive library itself, her boyfriend teasing her, people coming in to ask James an odd question here or there, and the open door where there seemed to be a fairly steady stream of people walking by.

"I'm starting to think I'll never get through this class at this rate," she had to tease him at last when he'd gotten her distracted with a solid kiss.

"Wanna go somewhere else instead?" James asked. "Study break …"

"Probably," she said, though she was smirking his way at that.

"I'm open to suggestion," James said before he closed his laptop and turned her way with his chin in his hand. "You've get all the references you were looking for?"

"I did, thanks," Alyssa said with a smile. She leaned over for a quick, mostly chaste kiss again before she got to her feet. "I'll let you pick."

"Yeah, _that's_ not gonna help your study habits."

"Probably not," she said, letting her shoulders drop slightly even as her smile grew wider.

"Weather's nice," James said as he stretched out. "We can head out onto the grounds or … whatcha got in mind?" He left the laptop on the table and got to his feet to join her. "So do you need a break or just a change of scenery?"

"A break," she said, pushing her books with one hand away from her. "It's bad enough reading it once; writing about it is just painful."

"Fair enough," he said with a nod before he offered her his hand. "No one will bother your stuff here. Let's get a little fresh air."

She smiled as she took his hand and let him lead her out onto the grounds, smiling over at him the whole time.

"I suppose you haven't gotten the nickel tour, have you?" James asked, smirking to himself.

"Not really," she admitted, smiling wider. "You've neglected your duties."

He pulled her over a little closer, put his arm around her shoulders, and simply started to give her the rundown of where everything was — the archery range, pool, pond, riding arena and barn. The basics. They were headed toward the barn when Elin and Chance left the arena on a pair of horses, smiling at each other and clearly setting up to race.

"They're always so sweet together," Alyssa told James with a smile, tugging on his hand.

"They've been stuck on each other since the start," James said. "At least for as long as I can remember."

"That would explain a lot," Alyssa said, nodding to herself as she watched Elin and Chance, though she bit her lip when she noticed something new and turned to James. "When did he decide to get rid of the scar?" she asked with a frown. "I thought he was set on keeping it."

"Ah … it… wasn't ... ," James said, almost wincing. "You know, it's probably best if he explained it himself.."

Alyssa nodded lightly as they headed to the barn, smiling at the other couple as they caught up to them. "Nice day for a ride!" she called out to them.

"Oh, don't … try to _talk_ to them. You don't want to know what they're up to," James said as he pulled her into the barn with him. "That is nothing that needs witnesses. Ever."

"I thought they were just riding?" Alyssa said.

"They're never 'just' doing anything," James laughed. "It's always attached to something else."

Alyssa let out a little laugh before she kissed his cheek. "Is that a family trait?" she teased.

"Yep," he agreed with a grin. "We like to multitask."

Alyssa smiled at that and laced her fingers through his. "Well, alright. But I do want to hear the story sometime," she said.

James closed one eye as she wrapped her arms around his middle. "Not my story to tell, but … maybe next time we double with them?"

She nodded. "Alright. That sounds good."

* * *

When lunchtime came around, there wasn't a big rush of people during the summer — it was more a matter of people ducking in to grab a bite and then go back out to whatever it was they were doing. Pool parties, horse races, picnics, whatever else was going on. And that was what Cody was trying to do when he ducked into the kitchen to grab something before he meant to head back out to spend the rest of the day on the lake with Chloe. His sisters were making it a point to spend plenty of time with him, and he really didn't mind in the least.

"Whatcha doin?" Lily asked even before her blonde head popped up past the level of the counter as she climbed onto a stool.

"I'm just grabbing some food," Cody explained, gesturing with one hand to the half-made sandwich as he finished laying out some turkey on the bread.

"I think you need some av-a … av-o-caaaado."

"Why do you think I need avocado?"

She shrugged up both shoulders. "Ummm…. _yes_. That's why my mom keeps tellin' me. I need more green _stuff_. And that's green."

"I think she means more vegetables in general," Cody said with a small smirk.

"I don't think so. She puts avo-av ... _that_ on her sammitches."

Cody nodded. "I put lettuce and tomato on mine," he said, waving a hand to bring the ingredients over to she could see. He didn't use his powers too much in front of the adults, because he could hear telepathically how much it freaked them out still. But the kids seemed to think it was cool, and he liked their enthusiasm. Yes, part of that was the fact that he still sometimes thought the way Sinister wanted to about his _gifts,_ but he was also a teenager who was already self-conscious enough without people hating his powers.

She nodded along. "She does that _too_ , but the um… the green squishy stuff," she said, propping her head up with both hands.

"Think I need some pickles?" he asked.

"Uh-huh," she giggled. "Elin _always_ puts pickles wif everyone's sammitches." she leaned forward. "' _specially Krissy's._ "

Cody nodded with a smirk as he leaned forward too. "That's because Krissy hates them," he whispered to her.

She scrunched up her face, one eye almost closed as she did so. "That's _silly._ "

Cody shrugged. "Some people like pickles, and others don't," he said simply as he finished making his sandwich and started to put his ingredients away again.

"What about dessert? You _need_ dessert."

"I'm having dessert tonight after dinner," Cody said, his head still in the fridge as he put away the lettuce.

"Yeah, but what about dessert to go wit' your sammitch? You need some chock-lit pudding."

"That's a very sweet offer, but I actually just want the sandwich so I can eat it on my way outside," he explained softly, reaching over to ruffle her hair.

"But it's really, _really_ good," she promised. "I can get it for you."

"I know it is, but I don't want any," Cody said. "Maybe later, okay?"

She let out a huff that blew a strand of hair out of her face. "I think you gonna be sowwy. Mama says Summeseses need it to stay _sweet_. Not like lit-tle girls. So you _need_ it."

Cody took a deep breath and let it out as he shook his head at her. "No, thank you, Lily," he said — albeit very quietly.

Lily let out a long, almost groaning 'o-kay' before she hopped down and hugged him around the knees.

Cody couldn't help but shake his head to himself as he watched her trot off. He liked Lily, but she could be a force of nature sometimes. He picked up his sandwich and headed out the door, though he didn't quite get all the way there before he saw K, clearly having just gotten a hug from Lily on her way to play too.

"You're coming along well, sweetheart," K said before she popped up on her toes to kiss Cody's cheek.

Cody smiled her way and rubbed the back of his neck. "Not really."

"You're learning to say no - even if it's to the pushy preschooler. It's more than you could do just a short while ago."

Cody paused to think about it before he couldn't help but smile lightly. "Yeah… I guess I am," he said.

"You should be _proud_ ," K told him. "Your own father can't even say no to her."

"That's because she's relentless and adorable," Cody pointed out.

"And yet … you still managed. Keep it up, young man, and we'll be out on the range before you know it."

"I think I'd like that," Cody said with a small smile. "It's been a long time."

"Too long - and your brother's been distracted, so I'd love for you to show him up."

"I… don't want to do that," Cody said with a frown, shaking his head lightly.

She grinned wider. "And even more difficult than saying no to her," she said before she gave him another kiss on the cheek. "Only Summers I'll accept a 'no' from. And only for now."

Cody looked surprised before he broke into a little smile. "I wasn't — I didn't mean to say no," he explained quickly.

"Don't apologize! Just keep following what you want, please."

He nodded lightly. "Well, what I _want_ is for my brother not to feel like he's getting outstripped shooting. It's important to him that he's good at it, and I can hear it when you bring it up." He tapped the side of his head. "That's all I was trying to say."

K smiled his way. "I know," she said gently. "But I also know that if I hit the button for competition, he works twice as hard to do better."

"He's distracted," Cody said with a small smirk. "And not just over the healing."

"I'm well aware of why," K said, shaking her head. "He's not that subtle."

"Even Mom knows. She's trying to be discreet."

"We all know," K promised. "Even if some are trying to ignore it."

Cody nodded and then pointed toward the door. "Well, I told Chloe I'd go swimming and fishing with her today…"

"Go on; have fun," K said, waving his way. "When you're a little better at expressing the 'nope', we'll talk about targets."

Cody couldn't help but smirk her way at that before he ducked out with a wave to go find his little sister, more than a little surprised and pleased with himself at the fact that there _was_ progress when he'd been feeling like there wasn't much at all.


	12. What's the Story?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which those who weren't in the know are about to be.

Zoe had thought about asking to take an earlier rotation in Westchester than she was scheduled for, but then, she remembered her mom's advice to cut her losses if need be, and she didn't think she'd be able to go cold turkey and re-configure the way she was thinking, so… she wound up driving to Westchester on her own time.

She didn't have an excuse, but maybe that was better. She was allowed to come say hi to an old friend who had come back from the dead, right?

She had been expecting (and dreading) the knowing look her Aunt Kate gave her — but thankfully, Kate was on her way out the door with her bow and with Billy and Teddy. Some kind of mission, apparently. It wasn't a mission bad enough that Kate had her game face fully on, but it kept her from razzing Zoe too badly.

Zoe poked around a bit until she made her way down to the game room, somehow not at all surprised to find Krissy and Chance competing at darts — even if they weren't dating, they couldn't stop competing — and to spot Sying with his little girl. She _was_ , however, surprised when she saw Cody… because her parents hadn't prepared her for how much _taller_ he was now.

"Oh, um, so… secondhand Avenger storytelling sucks. No one told me you grew two feet in both directions," Zoe said, waving tightly as she let herself into the room. "Hi, by the way. Little bird said one of my oldest friends was still alive, and I wanted to see for myself."

Krissy immediately teleported over to hug Zoe. "Long time no see!" she gushed. "Your dad wouldn't put Ariel down when he took his turn two weeks ago. Are you absolutely sure you're not coming with big sister news?"

Zoe made a face but hugged Krissy back anyway. "You're so weird, you know that?"

"You didn't see what I did."

"She's not wrong," Chance agreed. "Was kinda nice to not be the only one around here getting looks for the baby face." He made his way over to hug her too. "You know, spot's always open for you on the junior team if you want to move out of the little leagues."

"Oh ha ha, very funny," Zoe said, shoving his shoulder. "I happen to like being an Avenger. And besides, where would Eleanor and Dani be without me?"

"The way I hear things, they're the ones getting you out of trouble," Chance pointed out.

"Get your ears checked," Zoe said, shaking her head. She looked past him to see that Elin was sitting with Sying and called out to her, "Your husband thinks being mean to me is a recruitment strategy!"

"He's just like that. I think it's the Hale side," Elin said.

Zoe grinned wider as she extricated herself from between Krissy and Chance and made her way toward Elin, using that as an excuse to come to where Cody was — since he still hadn't actually said hi. "Heard about all the other crap too. So now, turnabout: wanna join the safer team?"

"Who, me?" Elin said. "I'm pretty sure I outgrew Avenger-level trouble when I was Nikki's age."

"Oooh, remind me to throw my brother under a bus about his spectacularly bad dating decisions. Or flirting. He's not legally _allowed_ to date them…"

"Well, remind me to tell _you_ that you don't need to _date_ anyone to get into trouble," Elin said.

"Yeah, Mom already broke into Peter's office and informed him about some HR changes…"

"Sounds like they were needed," Elin said. "So … what brings you all the way out here to hang with the cool kids? At the risk of backing up my husband, are you thinking of stepping it up from the Avengers?"

"I really do like the team I'm on," Zoe promised.

"Good. I don't want you to join anyone if you're not totally sold on it on your own."

Zoe had to pause at the wording, wondering if Elin knew more than she was letting on and then realizing that, yeah, she probably did. She let out a light laugh, rolled her shoulders, and nodded. "Yeah, well, I really did want to come say hi to Cody, actually," she said, smiling Cody's way. "I was glad to hear he's not dead."

Elin gestured to him. "What's stopping you? He needs hugs all the time. Ask Lily."

"Oh, well, I… I did actually want to ask about, like… Mom and Dad were light on details so if there's anything I should absolutely _avoid_ with him…"

Elin watched her for a moment with a half-smile. "Hey Cody," she called out. "You have a visitor. I think she _missed_ you." Then, Elin leaned toward Zoe. "I don't think you'd hit any of his triggers. Most of that seems to be centered around various X-Men. Avengers ... " She couldn't help but give Zoe a once over as a tease. "... clearly aren't a threat."

"You're hilarious," Zoe said under her breath.

"I am," Elin agreed.

Cody smirked Elin's way as he made his way over. "What, you're doing announcements now?"

"Only when someone is pussy-footing around even trying to say hi," Elin said. "I know she didn't come out here to hear Chance's recruitment speech … now, if someone _else_ had a recruitment speech …"

Zoe shot Elin a dirty look. "Geez, try and be careful and ask about triggers around a traumatized person."

Elin waved a hand as she got to her feet. "I already told her Avengers weren't a threat … right, Cody?" She popped up on her toes and pulled at his arm so he'd duck down, allowing her to kiss his cheek. "Have fun."

Cody smiled as Elin slipped off with Sying and Ariel — and then let out a surprised noise when Zoe rushed right over to hug him. "Oh… hi?"

"I was told you need hugs. The tiny blonde said so, and no one argues with her, apparently," Zoe said, and Cody laughed.

"Yeah, she's in charge," he agreed. He looked down at her, not sure how much she knew about everything that had happened, though she had never been very good at telepathic defense and was all but shouting that she was worried about what might have changed. "So, ah, hi."

"Hi." She glanced up at him and quickly let go again. "Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for hugs that Lily ordered," Cody said with a soft smirk. "Just not sure what question you want to ask first." He tapped the side of his head. "Telepathy. You're pretty loud."

" _Oh crap_." Zoe's hair turned bright, bright red along with her face, and Cody could hear all the mental walls slamming down to lock down her mind. She knew how to do it, but she didn't keep up the practice after she graduated from Westchester. "Sorry. You're just… I just wanted to check on you?"

Cody gestured with one hand. "It's a common hobby."

"I'll bet." Zoe bit her lip. "Sorry I'm terrible at this. I didn't join the team that does daily resurrections or whatever."

"Yeah, not really in the handbook, but I know it's a joke on the other team," Cody said with a rueful smile.

"Can you tell me… I mean, I don't want to know the gritty details, but tell me what changed. You're super tall. I mean, it's not as bad as it could have been, right?"

"It could have been a lot worse, yeah," Cody admitted, then sighed, knowing he both needed and wanted to tell her what she didn't know yet. "Can we go somewhere away from the crowd?" His question was soft, and his shoulders had shrunk in, making it abundantly clear that he wasn't comfortable talking in the group.

Zoe nodded quickly. "Yeah, let's… we can go to the docks. I liked to skip stones on the lake sometimes when I was here."

When they got to the lake, Cody took a moment to gather his thoughts, his hand resting on the back of his neck as he thought it over … it was a gesture that he used to do all the time but was just now starting to do it again after Sinister, and every time he realized he was doing it, he'd quickly readjust and awkwardly try to find something to do with his hands. Which was the first thing that Zoe noticed that was radically different aside from the sheer size of the guy and the different manner of speaking. When Cody started to tell her what had happened, he did so in a soft, understated tone that was just loud enough that she had to pay close attention to hear all of it. The story was very matter-of-fact, lacking any emotion in the retelling, and when it was done, Cody looked as if he honestly didn't know how to proceed.

By the time he was done, she felt like she was going to bite through her lip for how many times she kept chewing on it. "Wow," she said at last, softly. "That… that sucks. That really, really sucks. I can't even sugarcoat it."

"Sinister is dead now," Cody said. "So he can't come back to stir up trouble again."

"Yeah, I did actually get that in my Avengers briefing," Zoe said. "I mostly came here because I was worried about you. I mean… no _way_ anyone can be okay after being gone that long. And you were one of the best friends I had when we were kids, you know?"

"Yeah," Cody said in a breath.

"Right." Zoe nodded. "Right, so… so I guess… I'll just have to come over more. Or… something. Let's hang out more. You need someone outside the drama circle, I'll bet."

Cody nodded. "Okay."

"Great!" Zoe sat up a bit straighter. "There's an ice cream place Krissy and Kari introduced me to that I love. Whatdya say to hanging out with ice cream while I tell you the totally not world-ending drama of being an Avenger. It mostly involves Dad pretending he's not setting me up so he can retire in peace — except he keeps changing his mind and joining missions anyway. Like a dork."

"Okay," Cody said — but it was the fact that he'd said it in the same tone as the last time he said it that caught her attention.

She paused, narrowed her eyes, and cocked her head to the side. "Wait. I've changed my mind. We should get donuts. There's sugar-covered cinnamon ones in town too."

Cody met her gaze and then let out a breath. "You know you're easier to read when you're that concentrated, right?"

Zoe blushed but didn't look away. "You're the one just going along with me. Do you even actually want to hang out or are you just placating me? Because there's a difference."

"I … want to go," Cody said, frowning lightly.

"Okay, well, I'll let you pick where we go, then," Zoe decided, nodding to herself. "I still totally want to hang out, but you know your limits better than I do. I'm also fine with just coming and sitting on the lake if you're not supposed to go far from home or something."

"We can go to one of those places," Cody said.

"Okay. Well." Zoe took a deep breath and let it out. "Okay. But let's … okay. Why don't you tell me how Lily got to be in charge of you?" she offered. "Let's hang out."

"She kind of decided it on her own," Cody said.

"Sounds like her," Zoe agreed, nodding and trying to relax and get into a conversation — but she had already figured out what was bothering her, and she genuinely didn't know how to seize her path like her mom had told her to do when Cody wasn't _independently thinking well._

In the meantime, though, she was actually enjoying having Cody back. And if she could get him to joke around like he used to, she'd consider the day a win.

So, that was what she was shooting for. For now.

* * *

It wasn't long before Alyssa had talked James into a double date with Chance and Elin. She'd been curious about Chance's scar and the story behind it ever since the last time she'd seen them, especially because she remembered that those two had been involved when James had been hurt on a mission and she just _knew_ there was more to the story than anyone had told her.

Call it a reporter's intuition.

And besides that, she genuinely wanted to see them again, because she liked the whole family and liked spending time with them.

They ended up deciding on a summer picnic, complete with a horse ride out to someplace private — which Alyssa suspected at that point was really just an excuse to have separate rides and plenty of space to spread out after the picnic was over, but she wasn't going to complain about that, either.

The ride itself was perfectly peaceful out to the spot Elin had picked out, too. It was a cloudy day, so the late July heat wasn't quite so oppressive — and the spot was shady, too. Which meant everyone was more or less relaxed. And, Alyssa hoped, in a talkative mood.

She didn't really find a good segue in the conversation to bring it up, but she couldn't quite control her curiosity any longer when she finally blurted out, "So, what happened to your scar?"

Chance looked up from whispering something to Elin and then blinked her way, absently putting a hand to where the 'H' used to be. "Long story."

"Don't look at me; I told her it was your story," James said.

Chance let out a sigh James' way before he seemed to think for a longer time than Alyssa thought was strictly necessary and then leaned back. "Alright, so," he said, "it's not so much a long story as it is a stupid one."

"Off the record," Elin said. "Of course."

"Of course!" Alyssa agreed quickly.

Both Elin and James looked at Chance as if to say 'your story', then both leaned back to listen. Which just had Chance shaking his head at them before he leaned forward again. "So, I don't know how much of the story is public knowledge," he admitted. "Or if it's just that, well, Sinister's dead."

"Sinister never did anything publicly," James said with his gaze on the ground. "Unless he's screwed with you or someone you love, no one knows who he is."

Chance looked toward Alyssa, who nodded lightly to confirm James' story, and then let out his breath in a woosh. "Alright," he said. "Well, to put it simply, he was a pain in the butt and tried to kill me a few times. Since, you know, I was a kid." He ran a hand through his hair. "Long story short, he came pretty close this last time, and as part of it… well, the healing afterward was not fun and had to be done artificially." He gestured to his face. "So, the scar went with it."

"The guy was a _far_ ahead-of-his-time geneticist," James said in a low undertone. "He had a fixation on the Summers family in particular."

"And the creep took offense to my being a human," Chance muttered.

"That's okay, took offense to me being smarter than him," James said with a tight smile.

Chance nodded his way with almost the same expression before he looked back toward Alyssa. "Anyway, it wasn't exactly my choice. But I'm not so attached to it that I want to get another branding, y'know? I'm fine like this," he said with an attempt at a smile.

James couldn't help but gesture to Chance. "You sure about that? I could work something up for you …"

"No, James," Chance said, shaking his head at him.

"Open offer," he said before he leaned back onto one elbow.

Chance rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah, I'm good, thanks," he said, though he fell silent until Alyssa broke in to try to reduce the tension the story had obviously brought up. She _did_ feel bad about asking about what was so obviously a sore spot.

"Well, I'm really sorry to hear about that — all of that," Alyssa said.

"He's fine now," Elin said, squeezing Chance's arm. "Mostly."

"Mostly?" he couldn't help but tease. "I'm amazing."

"And totally modest, too." Elin leaned over to give him a quick kiss.

"That hasn't changed at all, then," Alyssa whispered to James. "So he's fine."

"That's what they tell me," James agreed, nodding slowly.

"What about you two?" Chance asked. "The English class going okay?"

"Oh, she's gonna fail it," James said with a perfectly straight face.

Alyssa smirked and hit him lightly in the shoulder. "Of course you think that."

"You're writing well enough to ace it," James said. "You're just dealing with a total tool of a prof."

"I really am," Alyssa groaned. She turned to Elin with a look of frustration. "He picks the _stupidest_ books. And he only wants you to share _his_ opinions on them."

"You're making me want to take his class," Elin said. "Just so I can hit him."

"I wouldn't complain in the least," Alyssa said. "He deserves it. You should have heard the _Lolita_ section. He thinks it's a _love story_."

"That …" Elin stopped and frowned. "What's his name? I'm sure James can dig into him a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised if he was an actual creep if he thinks _that's_ a love story."

"Professor Jenkins," Alyssa said. "English department. Literally all of the ladies in my class would throw themselves at you if you did," she added in a teasing tone toward James.

"Then I'll just tell them _you_ did it," James said. "Investigative journalist and all…"

"I couldn't take credit for someone else's work," she said, though she bit her lip and had a bit of a spark to her gaze. "But if you _helped_ me look into it…"

James nodded at that. "Sure. You can use my laptop. It's untraceable."

She grinned and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "This is why I like you."

"Questionable online activity? Has to be the first time someone's said that," James said.

She just laughed at that. "Uh-huh. We'll go with that."

Chance grinned over at Elin. "Well," he said with a pointed look. "I'm sure there's someplace we can be."

"Not subtle," Elin said quietly. "And I'm starting to wonder if I should grill her."

"You can," he said. "Or… we could let them have a little fun… and have some ourselves."

Elin gave him a dry look. "If it was _your_ younger sibling …"

"If it was Cody, I'd be glad to see him getting _out_ there," Chance pointed out. "Chloe… I'd kill the guy."

"So it's a double standard then," James said. "Good to know."

"Um, yeah, if you consider 'used to be a traumatized slave and needs affection' versus 'small sister who sucks at flirting' to be a double standard."

James raised his eyebrows and nodded lightly. "It _is_."

"Good to know," Chance said, rolling his eyes.

But James wasn't about to let that slide when clearly, Chance wasn't looking at all the angles. " _He_ needs someone to watch out for him," James said as he got to his feet. "Especially since he can't say no." He offered Alyssa a hand up and pulled her to her feet. "Chloe? She will kick the crap out of _anyone_ if they cross her."

"This… is a good point," Chance admitted. "I was thinking about the fact that he looks like the world is ending when he's alone too long."

"Sexist," Elin teased with a laugh. "Maybe _you_ should take that class. We can judge you on how well you do with that professor."

Chance made a face. "Ugh. No way. I have _standards_."

"Standards that think that guys that have been beat around are better suited to dating than ass-kicking girls," James said, shaking his head. "I'm telling Chloe. In front of Cody so he can have a laugh."

"Point made, guys, jeez," Chance said, throwing up his hands.

"You'll learn how to quit when you're ahead," Elin promised before she kissed him. "Probably. Eventually."

He shook his head at her and dropped his voice to a whisper that Alyssa couldn't hear. "I've got time," he said.

"No excuse to be a slow study," she teased, trying hard not to laugh.

He smiled wider at her and shook his head before he kissed her deeply again, and Alyssa tugged on James' hand lightly, taking the clue that it was time to split up.

"What happened with Cody anyway?" she asked in a whisper. "All I know is that his family's glad he's back, but I don't know how the resurrection worked."

"Same creep, slightly different story," James said. "The guy had him for a long time. He wasn't dead." James helped her onto her horse and then hopped up onto his horse to head down the trail. "The truth is, he had a hold of most of us for specimen collections. I know I said he had a fixation on the Summers, but he met my dad for the first time when Dad was about my age."

"Ummm. What," Alyssa said, turning toward James with wide eyes.

James let out a sigh. "It's very complicated and doesn't sound like it's possible," he admitted. "But _again_ the short version of it was he was the one working for Apocalypse to find powerful mutants." He shrugged lightly. "Or he was supposed to be."

"Is it normal for me to have more questions after every answer you give? Because I feel like it just gets more ridiculous whenever you say anything at all."

James had to smile her way. "Considering the subject matter? Yeah. Totally normal. I'd be concerned for your sanity if you were to just shrug it off."

"Oh good. Because… _what_?"

He let his shoulders droop visibly. "Not the subject matter I thought we'd end up with, but … okay. I'll give you the cliff notes version." They took a long, winding, and slow trail as he did just that — going as simplistic as he could to try and gloss over the details on this one particular creep that had plagued both families for over a century, though he was, of course, sure to avoid the finer points of his own time with Sinister and the details on what had happened to Chance and Elin as well.

By the time he was done, Alyssa was fairly wide-eyed, even without the details, her lips slightly parted as she looked at James with something almost like panic. "Is this … normal for X-Men? I never even heard of this guy… except for, like, a few mentions in old archives!"

"All of them? No," James said. "And that's it. He's dead. For sure. It's not going to be a problem anymore."

"No offense, James, but 'dead' doesn't seem to be very permanent with the X-Men and their villains," Alyssa said with a frown.

"It … seems that way sometimes, yeah," he had to admit. "But this wasn't just one person that saw to it. And I can tell you that Apocalypse started the ball rolling when he stripped some of Sinister's powers."

She regarded him for a long time before she finally nodded. "Alright. If you say he's dead, then I believe you. But that is just… wrong. All of it."

"Yeah, it is," he agreed. "But not like I can pick and choose which parts of the family history to accept. Sadly."

Alyssa shook her head at that, though by that time, James had led them to a stop, and she let him help her dismount. "And here I am worried about a creepy professor," she muttered, still shaking her head to herself.

"In all honesty, _I'm_ a little worried about your stupid professor," James said as he picketed the horses nearby.

"If he turns out to be some… power-sucking demon, I'm going to scream," Alyssa warned, only half joking.

James smiled to himself. "If he turns out to be a misogynistic sack of crap, we can just send Dad down to have a word. He takes issue, believe it or not."

"Considering how you are, I can believe it," Alyssa said with a smile.

"Had to learn it somewhere," James agreed.

Alyssa took a deep breath and let it out all out in a woosh. "But… let's talk about something else," she said, once again reaching out to make contact and begin to get all wrapped up. "I'm getting creeped out by proxy."

"Anything," James agreed, closing his eyes and nodding as he let her direct him. "Please."

Alyssa bit her lip, glanced over her shoulder, then pulled him into a kiss — deciding that was the best course the conversation could take, after all.

* * *

When Zoe got back home, she was relieved to see that Nikki and their mom were busy going over some old codes. She didn't want to have to deal with Nikki's teasing — or, if she was honest, her mom's inevitable silent questions about how it went until she broke down and told her so she didn't have to deal with the looks anymore.

It seriously wasn't fair that she had the Black Widow for a mom.

On the other hand, her dad didn't miss the fact that she was dragging her feet, still thinking over everything she'd seen in Westchester. She'd tried to go past him while he was refilling the coffeemaker, but he caught her arm before she could get out the door.

"Yeah, that ain't gonna work, baby girl," he said, gesturing for her to come sit with him. "So. Didn't go as planned, huh? How bad is it?"

Zoe frowned at him. "It's not like I thought I was just gonna waltz in and kiss him, Dad."

"No, but something's bothering you," he pointed out.

"What gave it away?"

"You mope worse than I do," Clint said, smirking hard as he put his feet up on the chair across from him.

"That's not even _possible_ ," she said, crossing her arms again.

"Zo, you walked in here so slow I could have put a snail in front of you and you'd still lose the race."

She rolled her eyes. "You are _so_ funny, Dad."

"I am. It's part of my charm." He gestured with one hand. "So, what's the story? Can't hug him? Touch sensitive? Won't talk to you? I mean, hugging and chatting are your two big go-tos.."

"No, that's not … it's weird, you know?" Zoe said. "I don't really understand _how,_ but he doesn't really … say _no_. To like, anything."

All of a sudden, Clint sat forward, even taking his feet off the chair in front of him. "Okay. Walk me through that one. Is he scared of standing up for himself or _incapable_?"

"He doesn't seem scared," Zoe said. "I don't think he _can_. He didn't exactly say it outright, but he doesn't say no. And I don't … I can't follow Mom's advice when he doesn't really seem able to be _him_ yet. The guy that had him must have been a top-notch creep."

"I was there after he died the first time, and yeah, he was," Clint said.

"So … yeah," she blew out a breath and doubled down on her efforts to shrink in on herself. "I don't know what to do with that. And I don't think I _can_ … just … cut and run or even give it a shot."

Clint was quiet for longer than Zoe was used to hearing from him. "Well, baby, it's tough. It really is," he said. "Your mom and I both — well, your mom worse than me — but both of us went through it dealing with creeps. Loving someone who isn't the same after someone tore them out and used their body and skillset for themselves… it's tough. I won't sugarcoat it for you." He took a deep breath. "You can't give it a shot right now. You're right."

"I know. But I don't think I can just cut him out either," she said.

"No, that would hurt him even worse," Clint agreed. He sighed and leaned into his hands. "But right now, what he needs is consistency. Someone who doesn't want anything from him. You show up, you _be there_ for him. Let him remember who he was before anything else."

"Yeah, that's what I figured," she said quietly. "But I wasn't thinking I'd have to tell Mom she's wrong."

Clint snorted. "She's not wrong," he said. "I don't see you running away from him. Tells me pretty clearly you love him, Zo."

"Don't know that right now," Zoe said in a rushed breath.

"Uh-huh." Clint couldn't help but smirk. "Listen, I'm not saying he's the one. But you're allowed to be in love, and, god help us all, you fall as hard and as easily as I do, but you fall like your mother."

"Nikki is the one that falls for people like you," she said. "And he's always falling in love."

"Point." Clint shook his head. "That's a whole other discussion I've got to have with your brother, because he's as bad as I am at falling hard and sucking at dating."

"Again …. not even possible," Zoe teased, then gestured openly. "The Avengers _talk_."

"And you spent a while at Katie's school. Yeah, I know." Clint leaned back and shook his head. "Point is… you've got a long road ahead of you. I don't envy you, because I remember how hard that was."

"Have you ever had to help someone like this?" Zoe asked, trying to shift the conversation slightly to a more reasonable angle.

"Yeah." Clint chewed over his next words for a while. "There was a while there that your mom barely remembered who she was. And she helped with Bucky. And I know how to do it wrong too, but I won't scar you with stories about Wanda, alright? It was bad all around."

"Alright," Zoe said quietly, then shifted to slip over and latch onto his side. "Thanks."

"Anytime," he said, pulling her close to kiss the top of her head. "You need help, I'll be right there, alright? Even if you just need a good cry. It's stressful, I know."

"Love you too, Dad."


	13. Unexpected Side Effects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which healing comes with plenty of problems... sometimes funny ones.

The sort of lazy feeling that had permeated the mansion over the summer as everyone focused on recovery — or playing with the littlest ones, depending on the family — came to an abrupt halt in early August when the reports came in that a planned Superior Rising rally had been crashed by the Friends of Humanity, and the resulting violence had already gotten bad enough that the police couldn't contain it.

Logan pulled in both senior and junior teams for the first decent all-hands-on-deck situation that the junior team had really seen in a long time. "Senior team will handle the FoH," Logan had told them. "You guys have done pretty well dealing with the SR idiots so far." He turned toward Chance and the youngest of the group. "Keep a bamf nearby. Tensions are just gonna get worse once we get there."

Chance was already nodding as Chloe and Kaleb glanced at each other. "Got it," Chloe said seriously.

Unlike their usual briefings, Logan simply pushed them toward the comms and directed them to the jet. "I'll give you the details on the way — we need to get there now, and it's changin' as we go."

"So we'll just have to think on our feet," Chance said as they got moving.

"Your dad'll give us the update in the air," K promised. "He's on it."

"Of course he is," Chloe said with a proud little grin.

The full teams loaded up to head out to the scene, where they weren't surprised that they could see the fighting from incredibly far out. With some of the mutants in Superior Rising, it wasn't exactly subtle, and the Friends of Humanity had come heavily armed.

"Looks like someone broke the dampening field the Friends of Humanity had up," Scott let them know as they headed in. "They've got some old tags, though, so keep your guard up."

"Thanks, Slim," Logan said. "Stay patched in. You've got a better view than we do." It was true too, since once they were on the ground, the crowd was thick, and it was incredibly hard to see the big picture of things.

When Logan went right for the tightest clashing area of the two hate groups, James almost burst out laughing when Logan cleared his path into the middle by simply snarling out a 'move it' at both sides.

"That's my grandpa," Sying said with a grin Gerry's way before he dove in as well, following James' lead in letting the Superior Rising groups see a former Horseman and then using their idiotic distraction to their advantage.

Logan and K worked to separate the front line between the two groups and at least managed to make a path for the police to move in and start to push both sides back, but it was slow work, even with Kurt and Kaleb and the bamfs — and Krissy, since it was all-hands, and she decided she'd had enough post-maternity leave practice to feel safe about diving back in — working in overtime to get the team members where they needed to be. The riot seemed to be spilling beyond their control and stretched for several blocks of pure, simple, mindless violence.

Naturally, James found himself in a prominent position without meaning to, close to where a few brave cameramen were documenting the whole thing. It just … seemed to be working that way when he'd go out — and had been for the past few missions. He had to wonder if it was something the press was doing purposely. But that sounded a lot like paranoia to him.

Kaleb appeared close by James with an impish grin and his tail swaying behind him when he saw the focus on his friend. "You want to go somewhere you can slash idiots or do you want to be Golden Boy some more?" he offered.

"I'm good," James promised. "Just trying to do my _job_."

"Suit yourself," Kaleb said, then glanced beyond James to where Chance was having the opposite problem as James. Where James had a hard time getting anyone in SR to fight him, Chance had too much _negative_ attention. Kaleb let out a sigh when he saw the purple poof that meant Krissy had stepped in to help move him. "And I _just_ moved him too. What, do they have Chance-dar?"

When Krissy reappeared with Chance further out, there was a poof of blue a second before Kaleb followed suit, bringing James with him.

"Just that popular," Chance said with a frown.

"They're all jealous," Krissy had to tease him, more than happy to help one of her best friends avoid being killed as her first mission back in the field. They'd always worked well when they were being protective.

"What's the game plan?" James asked, already starting toward the crowd. "Pick a partner and see who wants to fight? Dad was pretty vague in his instructions."

"I think we're supposed to _stop_ the fighting, but since that doesn't seem likely, we could always just smack 'em around," Chance suggested, falling into an easy, well-worn meter of banter with his old sparring partner.

"Hey. I learned how to do that from _my dad_ ," James pointed out.

"So you know how to do it," Chance said with a smirk. "Come on, let's blow their tiny minds working together, huh?"

James chuckled at the old tease and nodded once. "Worth a shot."

"I guess I can stay on the ground for the full tag-team effect," Chance said, smirking and shaking out his arms.

"You're just reminding me that I should probably upgrade your thrusters," James said as they stepped back into the thick of it.

"I wouldn't complain," Chance said.

"Gotta finish up the coding first so they'll auto adjust to your stress level," James said, then took a hold of one particularly vocal Superior Rising supporter and pushed them back physically with a growl.

"He has a thing about touching," Chance chuckled. Still, with the attention the two of them in tandem were getting, he ended up taking off into the air anyway; the fact that he was close by James only helped so much and didn't seem to deter some of the braver guys with projectile powers.

Of course, those were the ones that James ended up hitting — hard. And in one case, he headbutted another hard enough to earn an echoing crack and drop the guy in his tracks. "Scaredy Summers."

"Yes, yes I am," Chance said with a smirk — even though he was shooting the Superior Rising creeps from his vantage point between dodging away from the blasts.

One of the purple-shirted men started shouting in James' face — the same crap he always got — and though James was patient, it was clear how much he had simply reached the end of his patience when he snarled back at the guy to step back, very much like his father had been doing for the better part of their involvement in the crowd.

"We need to break this up faster," James said into the comm with a growl lacing his tone. "Someone's gonna get hurt."

"I'm sure we can speed things up," Kaleb shot back, since he was closest.

"Just start 'porting the worst of them into, oh, the nearest lake," Krissy offered.

"Forget it," Logan called over the comms. "Just make the path for the cops and clear out the ones that don't want to be here anymore. The ones takin' off are already on video."

"We can do that too," Kaleb said, a moment before he teleported close to where James and Chance were working up a good rhythm together to start looking through the group to clear out the ones that were done.

But as the kids pushed back and the cops moved in — along with a healthy support system full of SHIELD agents and feds — the little knot nearest the three boys started to go the other way. A Superior Rising member had landed a lucky shot on one of the higher ups in the Friends of Humanity that was near the fringes inciting the riot, and the uproar was fierce and almost immediate. It was pretty clear that they'd been _hoping_ for something like this.

The Superior Rising kids were screaming at the Friends of Humanity for being the worst example of what mutantkind had to put up with; the Friends of Humanity were shouting that the kids were only proving their point about dangerous mutants — and the junior X-Men were caught in the middle.

"Can you fly out?" James asked, almost cringing as he pushed one of each group away from him.

"Yeah, if you don't mind being carried," Chance said.

"What did you think I was talking about upgrading your thrusters for? I don't think it'll fly both of us."

Chance let out a breath of frustration before he nodded. "Alright. Go with Kaleb," he said as he took off again — though he didn't get much further from the other two boys before they both saw him get hit with something that knocked him right out of the air. It wasn't clear which side it came from, either; they hadn't seen what hit him.

"Kaleb, _go,_ " James hissed, then pushed back hard against the people around him.

Kaleb looked wide-eyed but still grabbed James with his tail to teleport with him — though he ended up taking a few of the people James had been pushing with them as he teleported to where Chance had fallen and had clearly hit his head; he was bleeding heavily enough to leave a pool of blood and wasn't responding to anything Kaleb tried to do to rouse him.

James hit the guys that had travelled with them before the smoke could clear with a couple of hard, echoing cracks as Kaleb turned to check on Chance. And Kaleb had just let out a low whistle when he saw how the bad head wound was when someone from the Friends of Humanity came up on his blind side and smacked him hard enough to leave him seeing stars as he fell backward. He couldn't exactly hear what the guy was saying as he got up in his face when his ears were ringing — but most of it was slurs anyway.

"Damnit now," James snarled out just before he rushed the guy that had hit Kaleb, fully intending to kick the crap out of him for that — there was only so much he could take, after all. He drew back to hit him, and several pops echoed the crowd as the man shot him as many times as he had rounds in his weapon.

It didn't stop James from creaming the guy, but that was about all that he did before he went down next to the other two — and the crowd began to more or less stampede around them.

"Okay, okay, okay," Kaleb said as he shook his head hard, trying not to get stepped on, trying to focus — and then teleporting back to where the other two were laid out. "Okay, this looks very very bad."

A pair of Superior Rising guys stopped and knelt down to try and help, but they were pointedly ignoring Chance — all the way up until James roused enough to punch one in the mouth. "Get Chance out of here," James said to Kaleb.

"Right, yes, right," Kaleb said, still a little dazed himself.

"Or … Call for help if you're off," James said, though it was clear that the gunshots had been close enough to point blank to really have torn him up.

Kaleb blinked at him for just a moment before he called for his dad to come help, and when Kurt arrived to find the state of things — one concussed Elfling, a shot up Howlett, and a bleeding Summers — he quickly got the bamfs organized to help him grab a boy apiece and get them back to the jet.

By that time, a few of the others were there as well. Kate had just finished wrapping up one of the bamfs' arms and had a solid amount of bandages around her waist from a bad shot someone in the Friends of Humanity had taken at her. And Chloe was knocked out but otherwise okay — someone had hit her when she ran out of juice.

"What happened?" Kate asked when she saw the three boys arriving with Kurt.

"Too close to the fun," James said. "More or less."

"Bad crash landing," Kaleb clarified. "And then someone took exception to us helping."

"Kaleb has a concussion and … well. No one's really sure what's wrong with Chance. Now," James had to tease before he laid back flat on the floor and closed his eyes.

Kate gave him a dry look for that, though she did look relieved when she checked Chance over and saw that he was healing up. So, she turned her focus to Kaleb to examine his eyes, frowning to herself when she saw that he was having such a hard time focusing on her. "Alright, mister, you and I are going to have a long night of not sleeping if you keep this up," she told him.

"He sucker-punched me, Mom," Kaleb said with a frown.

"Of course he did, baby; he couldn't sneak up on you otherwise," Kate said.

Kaleb smirked slightly at that. "Uh-huh."

Elin wasn't too far behind them as she came in with her parents. "SHIELD has it under control now," she announced before she winced on seeing James. "What happened?"

"Um … I think … ricochets," James replied before he gestured to Chance, who was sitting up on the other side of the plane. "He took a really crappy landing, though."

"On his face," Kaleb supplied unhelpfully.

"Well how else is he gonna land?" James asked, wincing again when he chuckled to himself.

"You're both horrible," Elin said as she made her way over to Chance. She slipped into the seat next to him and looked him over critically before she leaned forward and gave him a long kiss. "How are you feeling?"

Chance looked totally stunned — though he was grinning crookedly. "What, was I that far gone?" he asked.

She frowned and tipped her head to the side. "So, what, less affectionate? That's new. I think that's the first complaint I've heard."

"No, no, not complaining," he said quickly as he started to sit up but didn't quite get there all the way when he was still healing and dizzy. "I just… gee, El, let me take you out or something if you're gonna start doing _that_."

She blinked at him for a moment and sat back, frowning. "How hard did you hit your head? Really?" As she waited for his answer, her eyes narrowed, and she began to take off her gloves.

"I dunno," he said with a frown.

"Must have been a good one, Mr. Summers," she said before she held up her left hand. "Because you forgot that we got married."

Chance looked like she could have knocked him over with a feather. "Wait, _really_?" he asked, lighting up like a Christmas tree as he grinned at her.

"Buyer's remorse?"

"No way!" he said, grinning even wider as he sat up and stared at her in near awe. "That's ... _wow_."

She couldn't help but smile at him and shake her head. "Really? You don't remember any of that?"

He shook his head lightly and then winced at the action. "No, but I wish I did. Married to _Elin Howlett._ Wow."

She laughed under her breath and leaned forward to kiss him again. "I am not sure if this stage should pass or not."

"The stage of being totally over the moon happy with you? Because I have some bad news for you, El, about how long I've liked you…"

She couldn't help but ask. "Yeah? What … been a couple weeks now, right?"

"Um, no. Since as long as I can remember," he said.

"Well, that story checks out," she said, sure to give him a longer kiss before she settled in with him.

He grinned over at her, still with that same sort of disbelieving look. "How long have we been married?" he asked softly.

"Little bit over two years," she told him.

"Oh wow," he said, still grinning and completely focused on her even as the rest of the team got in from the mission.

Logan made his way through the jet, checking on everyone as K got them airborne. He'd just spent a few long minutes telling James to relax — and warning him that Hank would be fishing out whatever didn't expel itself — before he stopped and frowned at Chance. "What's wrong with your face? You have a stroke or something?"

"What?" Chance frowned his way, breaking out of the goofy grin he'd been giving Elin. "No... I don't think so. I hit my head."

"He forgot we were married," Elin said. "And he's kind of been … blissing out. That's all."

Logan tipped his chin up and watched the two of them. "Head trauma or did you crack your neck?"

"Pretty sure it's probably both," James said from across the way.

Logan nodded and gave the two of them a subdued smile. "It'll come back, then. Might take a couple weeks, but it'll come back."

"Oh good," Chance said, genuinely relieved. "I want to remember something as amazing as being married to _Elin_."

"In the meantime, try not to push yourself into remembering anything — or thinking too hard." He turned to look at Kaleb and Krissy. "No dropping bombshells on him. That'll only make it worse."

"Well, being married to his childhood crush is kind of the big one," Krissy giggled.

"Too late to change that one, even for a couple weeks," Elin said.

Logan let out a sigh and started toward the cockpit. "You're both off for at least a week. Give him a chance to heal up more."

"Probably should do the same with Kaleb," Kate said. "Pretty nasty concussion — though he's not forgetting about important things like _his_ feral girlfriend," she couldn't help but tease.

"Kaleb, you're off for two weeks — to start," Logan said from the cockpit. "And no, we're not explaining why that is. Got it?"

"Uh-huh," Kaleb said.

"Ignore them," Elin told Chance quietly.

Chance just grinned her way. "Not gonna be a problem."

Elin shook her head, failing entirely to hide her smile and far too tempted to not touch one fine point that Logan had laid out. "Sounded to me like we just got a week to ourselves."

He nodded slowly, then did something of a double-take and broke into a grin that was somehow even wider. "Oh, yeah… he did say that, didn't he?"

"He did," she agreed, regaining control of her smile. "So what should we do?"

Chance tipped his head to the side as he considered her and then very carefully leaned over to kiss her. "Well, I definitely want to hear more about this being married thing," he said with a smirk.

"You and all the words," she said with a little growl, just to see if it'd get a rise out of him.

He blinked at her before he broke into a laugh. "Oh yeah, I must have done something _really good_ to get married to you," he said.

"Do you want the truth — or is it okay if I make up a wild story?" Elin asked.

"Umm, both. I'm good with both," he said, still grinning at her and completely oblivious to the fact that Kate was gleefully recording the entire thing and barely holding back her giggles, with her reporter bamf over her shoulder cackling with glee.

Elin smiled back at him. "How about you tell me how you think it went down? That would be worth something."

Chance tipped his head to the side as he considered the question. "Well…" he said slowly. "Knowing my family? I'm sure there was a _big_ party. Mom probably made the cake."

"Of course," Elin agreed.

"And… Krissy was your maid of honor, right? Cody was my best man?"

"So far so good," Elin said, nodding.

"And…" Chance seemed to think about it. "There were sunflowers in the bouquet."

She stopped at that and simply stared at him before she leaned in and kissed the sense out of him.

Kate looked like she was about to burst as she shook Kurt's arm. "Oh my gosh. Kurt. _Kurt_."

"I don't want to watch them, _Vögelchen_ ," Kurt said.

"Well not now, but _oh my gosh, Kurt,_ " Kate said, gleefully cackling. "This is the cutest thing I have seen in _weeks_."

"You sound so surprised," Kurt said, shaking his head.

"It's. So. Cute," she said, turning to grin his way. "Kinda reminds me of us when we first started," she couldn't help but tease him. "Total awe… lots of grinning and smiling…"

"They had wonderful examples to watch, yes," Kurt said with a grin.

Kate just laughed at that before she pulled him over by his shirt and kissed the sense out of him, too. After all, it was a good opportunity.


	14. What Do You Remember?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which memory issues are just the tip of the iceberg.

The bamfs were down in Hank's lab after the fight was over, fussing over their friend who had gotten his arm busted up and getting patched up for a few minor injuries just so that they could sneak sweets from Hank. But when they saw some of the others trickling in and out, they made it a point to spoil them too. Kaleb, of course, got totally spoiled, since they had a clear preference for their elfling buddy, and Kate was getting lots of love, too.

And, to James' surprise, a couple of the bamfs even poofed over to give him little looks of concern, but only one of them approached him — with a can of stolen beer that he set on James' lap with a 'bamf' and a sheepish kind of smile.

"No thanks," James said flatly.

The bamf frowned at that and pushed the can toward him a little more, chattering away in his one-word language — though even if this little guy wanted to be understood, it seemed to be the case that the rest had to agree to it too.

James picked up the can and set it on the table next to the bed, then closed his eyes, doing his best to ignore him. "Go away."

The little bamf chattered a few more attempts to get James to talk to him and even carefully tapped James's arm, but when James ignored him, he let out a little sigh and teleported away to go snuggle with Kaleb.

James was still leaning back with his eyes closed when a text came in from Alyssa: _I saw what happened on the news. How is everyone holding up?_

James took a moment to think about his answer before he answered. _Everyone's here. Little banged up, but no worse for wear, really._

_Everyone but Chance, you mean. I saw that fall._

_No, Chance … he's got a nasty concussion. Forgot a little bit of time. He's in awe of my sister. Again. Worse than before somehow._

_That's good. Did you get Lifeguard there in time? It looked fatal on the newscast._

James frowned and then turned to Hank. "Do you have footage of that riot?" But he was already searching for it online before Hank could answer.

"That would be a question best answered by your godfather," Hank told him. "He was monitoring, after all."

"Well, he's not here right now," James said under his breath, then sat up and put his legs over the side of the stretcher he was on. "Can I go?"

"I don't see why not," Hank said with a kind smile.

"Thanks, Uncle Blue," James said, quickly getting to his feet and pointedly ignoring the beer that he'd left on the table as he left. _Lifeguard is in Chicago._ _I need to see the footage. I didn't have the best angle from where I was,_ he texted back to Alyssa.

 _Let me send you what I've got,_ Alyssa replied.

 _Please and thank you,_ James replied on his way up to where Scott was still working.

A few minutes later, he got the first of several videos Alyssa promised to send him, showing various angles of the fight in general, though the first one showed a solid view of Chance being shot out of the sky. It looked enough like Angel's fall that it was a pretty good guess on her part as to how it had ended.

"Oh, crap," James said under his breath not three steps from the door to Scott. He finished the video and then knocked on the open door before he stepped inside. "We got a big problem."

Scott looked up from what he was doing and frowned James' way. "What happened?"

James made his way over to him and simply handed him the cued up video on his phone. "This is being broadcast. We don't have a way to explain why Chance isn't dead from it."

Scott's frown turned into more of a scowl as he watched the footage, and he ran a hand over his face before he swore under his breath and leaned back, pushing his hands against the table. "It isn't exactly something we could keep secret forever," he said. "The first time someone hit him and the damage faded fast…"

"I know," James said. "But I was hoping he'd get more room than this. First nasty mission?"

"He has spectacularly bad luck with the Superior Rising group," Scott muttered, clearly frustrated by this turn of events.

"Dad's with him now," James said. "He lost a lot of memory, too."

Scott's head came up at that. "How bad?"

"He … thought he died and went to heaven when Elin kissed him — so I'd guess a few years. Dad said it should come back, but still."

Scott let out all of his breath as he nodded. "Alright. I'll talk to Logan about it," he said. "In the meantime, you were right to come to me on this. We don't have a good explanation for Chance's recovery other than the truth."

James nodded at that. "Alyssa asked me about it - and offered up one possibility if you wanted a cover short term."

"Lifeguard is at the clinic right now," Scott pointed out. "That's easily disproved."

"Never mind then," James said. "It was a reasonable thought."

"It was," Scott agreed. "And honestly, I should have had him stay on here after Chance got his healing so we had him in our back pocket just in case, but…"

"I haven't told her anything," James said as he turned to leave.

"I didn't think you would," Scott assured him.

"I'm just clarifying," James said over his shoulder. "I'll tell her I'll explain later. She knows part of the truth on her own, but she's not going to report on us without our clearing it."

"But when the time comes, she might be a good option to do the reporting, honestly," Scott said. "Start small and start with someone we know."

James nodded at that. "She's got a huge following now," James said. "Goes a little crazy every time she does a live feed, too."

"Do you think she could handle a story like this?"

"I think … she's our friendliest option," James admitted. "But if we go to break the story with her, she'll need protection."

"She's here a lot anyway with your ' _study dates_ '," Scott pointed out. "I'm sure we can accommodate her."

"True," James said, blatantly ignoring Scott's tease. "I'll set it up for you to talk to her — that ought to give you time to decide how to handle it first."

"Let's at least wait until Chance has his memory back. That would be one horrible surprise if we did it without him."

James quietly agreed but stopped to write down Alyssa's number for him. "I'll tell her to expect a text then." He left Scott behind and finally responded to Alyssa. _This is over my head to answer. But you can expect a text from someone that can answer you. If you want the story._

 _Oh really?_ Alyssa replied, and even over text, James could imagine her excited look. _Of course I want it! Who is it?_

_My godfather. I gave him your number._

The response from Alyssa was simply a whole lot of exclamation points at that point.

_It's likely to be him, anyhow. Small chance he might make Dad do it instead._

_Either way, that's a huge story! THANK YOU!_

_You earned it. Most friendly non-directly-associated resource. David's on staff. And his stuff is more forums than interviews._

_Plus, he's married to a senior X-Man,_ Alyssa said. _They are really cute, btw._

_Yeah … that's … true, I suppose. Just relax. Don't speculate on the story. I'll see you, what? Couple days?_

_Count on it. I'll be there for coffee and English professor investigation._

James laughed at that and had to shake his head. She was clearly flying high. _Don't get started without me, Ace._

_Oh, okay, if I have to wait…_

_I know. Terrible drag on your career. I should be ashamed, but I'm not._

_I know._

James was smirking to himself as he pocketed his phone, but he didn't get much further before there was pink smoke around the corner, and then Kari appeared, grinning at him as she all but tackled him in a hug.

"My little brother said you saved his life!"

"He's overselling it," James said flatly.

"Oh, so you _don't_ want me to give you a kiss and dramatically thank you for saving him?" she teased.

"Well, you kind of already did that," James pointed out.

She laughed and kissed his cheek before she all but fell into his arms again. "Why, thank you, kind sir," she teased.

"You're welcome, sweet elfling," he said. "But take it easy, please. Ricochets hurt more than regular shots."

Kari straightened up and frowned at him, almost absently brushing off his shoulders. "Oh, I'm sorry — are you okay?"

"You didn't know — and I am or Hank wouldn't have let me leave," James said.

"Well, I was just down there, and Hank's busy with an overdramatic bamf trying to get more Twinkies out of his broken arm," Kari said.

James let out a little grunt at that. "Not surprised."

"Your little friend said he brought some beer for you," Kari said with a smile.

"I don't _have_ a little friend," James said, looking perfectly serious. "And I don't drink."

"Well, I told him you were too young, but they all seem to think beer or whiskey is the perfect cure-all for anything ever. Plus… they're demons," Kari said.

"Yeah, there's that," James said, putting on a tight smile.

Kari let out a breath and then popped up on her toes to kiss his cheek again. "This is progress, James. No one ever killed one of them before; they just… needed time to get past it."

"They can stay away; it's fine," James insisted.

"Even if they're ready to be friends again? Seems like one is, at least."

He let out a sigh. "I think they're better off not being involved with me."

Kari matched his sigh and lightly rapped her knuckles on his head. "Still got some progress of your own to do, I see," she said. "When are you going to remember that you deserve to be loved — even by little demons?"

"You're biased," he said.

"I am. But I'm also right," she said. "You're no less a child of God than I am, James."

"I'm not feelin' real philosophical tonight, Kari."

She let out a sigh before she threaded her arm through his. "Well at least let me curl up with my best friend while he heals from ricochets. You can pick the food."

"Thought I'd inhale something quick and easy then just pass out. Unless you have something to share?"

"Other than my undying gratitude for saving my brother, you mean?" she teased.

"Like he wouldn't do the same," James said.

"He would," Kari agreed. "He's a good brother." She kissed his cheek. "Okay, well, heal up, James."

"If you want entertainment, go watch Chance. He lost about …two or three years. His mind is blown."

"Mama already showed me the video she shot on the jet," Kari giggled, her tail swaying behind her. "It's so ridiculously cute."

"They're insane. What your mom failed to catch, though, was that Dad gave them a week off so Chance could heal."

"So… are you prepared to be an uncle again?"

James couldn't help but laugh at that. "I don't know if Chance is past the pure awe stage to get down to business."

"So pure and innocent and sweet," Kari said, and though her expression was one of delight, her eyes were twinkling with impish enjoyment.

"Pretty sure he'd just stare at her for most of it," James said, still smiling. "He was half afraid to kiss her."

"Well, of course — he was afraid to ask her out before Viper," Kari pointed out. "Kissing is a whole step beyond that…"

James gestured with both hands as if that was full explanation. "You know what? Screw it. How hungry are you? I'm cooking."

"Oh, if you're cooking, then I'm _definitely_ very hungry," she said with a smile, latching onto his arm again. "Lead the way."

* * *

Jana had been making some progress talking with Leslie Ann — not to mention all of the work that Remy and Rachel had put into her emotionally and mentally. But there was only so much that they could do from one room, and Rachel had suggested that she try to at least get out to the kitchen, living room, that kind of thing. She didn't have to talk to anyone if she wasn't up to it — but she needed to get _out_.

Of course, the mansion looked different than she remembered it. It always got a facelift when it was destroyed and rebuilt, and she hadn't been there, even as Sinister, since Apocalypse's Horsemen had screwed it up. But the paths were more or less the same, and she found herself walking through them with an air of familiarity. It felt like she was visiting something from a past life. She'd only been in her early twenties when Sinister had taken over, and walking through the halls of Xavier's felt like visiting a childhood home.

This was going to take some getting used to.

Meanwhile, Elin had gone downstairs to find a wedding album for Chance, since he'd been non-stop questioning her about the wedding. She'd only had to tell him twice about the engagement, but he was completely fixated on the wedding itself — and she'd finally decided to just get the pictures for him.

She found it and pulled it off the shelf, shaking her head still when she crossed the living room to find the pictures that they'd taken on the honeymoon too — even though he hadn't quite breached the questions on that _yet._ But she was totally sideswiped when she saw Jana.

She stopped dead in her tracks and frowned at her. She looked a lot different than she had when she'd been possessed by Sinister — but more than that, her scent was entirely different. "Hello," Elin said, holding the photo albums to her chest.

Jana looked honestly a little scared of Elin as she took a slight step back. "Hello," she said cautiously.

"You smell a lot different than you did before," Elin said.

"Well, that's good," Jana said hesitantly.

"It really is," Elin agreed, taking a cautious step toward her. "The antiseptic and English tea is gone."

Jana took an almost unconscious step back even as Elin stepped forward. "I'm sorry about what happened. I couldn't stop him."

"That's what Mom and Dad said," Elin agreed with a nod. "And Leslie Ann says you're amazing when you're not possessed by a Victorian creep."

"She told me that too," Jana said, hugging her arms. She hadn't come to terms with no longer being Sinister and bearing the guilt that came with it, but she was trying not to disagree with people's kind assessments of who she once was — especially when Remy had refused to let her speak the first time she tried something like that.

"I wish I could remember you from before," Elin said.

"I wish I'd gotten to see you grow up," Jana said quietly. "I knew you guys when you were babies — got you in trouble then, too. Which I am very sorry about too."

"I don't remember that," Elin said before she gave her a little smirk. "Family hazard, right? You came by it honestly."

"Yeah, it is," Jana said. "I have a very screwed up family."

Elin looked down at the books in her arms. "Mom said she was bringing you something from home - no idea what she's talking about, but she and Kurt left a little while ago. Both of them were snickering like they were going to cause some kind of trouble … so if that means anything to you …"

Jana shook her head lightly. "I'm… still getting used to … all of this. I can't imagine what it is."

"Knowing my Mom? Who knows. But I think I heard her talking about the mitten?" Elin said before she took half a step toward her and stopped. "All of the photo albums are in the next room over. I was just taking these two up to Chance. He kind of lost a few years after a head injury, and I'm tired of answering the same questions over and over. Did you want to take a look before he moves into the pictures?"

Jana looked shocked. "I… you should take care of him," she said.

"I am. He's fine right now," Elin promised. "And I'll bet you won't pour over them like he's going to." She held up the books. "You missed us growing up, but... you know. Pictures."

Jana slowly nodded. "Alright," she said. "Thanks."

Elin came over and sat down nearby. "I know you're not the same person. It's going to take some time to get past the image, but … people's scents don't change like that. And your voice is much prettier."

"Thank you," Jana said with a little flush of pleasure. "I was thinking of cutting all my hair off and dyeing it. Might help. I know it's hard — I can hear it in people's thoughts — and I want to fix it."

"Well, it's a symbolic thing anyhow," Elin said. "But I think … honestly? My family will be quicker than the others." She tapped the side of her nose. "It means _so_ very much."

Jana visibly relaxed at that as she sat down on the other end of the couch. "I wish I could change all of it. My hair, my face - I don't want you all to see me and remember what he did."

Elin shook her head vehemently. "No. Don't. Don't let him screw with you like that. Cut your hair. Dye it if you really feel like you need to, but all the rest of it will pass." She raised both eyebrows. "Get a tan. That would make you feel better too."

Jana couldn't help but smirk at that. "Probably," she agreed. "I don't know if I _can,_ but I can try it out."

"Maybe pick a color to wear other than black and red … not really your look," Elin teased as she opened the wedding book.

Jana smirked a little more at that as she moved slightly closer to look over the pictures and let out a little noise as she saw all of the happy faces. "I was your age when he — it's so weird to see you guys all grown up like this," she said in almost a whisper as she lightly ran her finger over the picture of all of the families posing together.

"And I'm sure you're not used to seeing everyone _smile_ either," Elin said.

Jana shook her head. "Not for years," she said, still speaking in a nearly reverent whisper.

"If you can believe it, Chance is grinning that wide right now. At least."

"I'm really glad he's alright," Jana said, glancing up at her. "I tried to stop her from killing him, but I …"

"You didn't have any control over your own body or mind," Elin said. "We have a few of those right now around here. And not one of you has been able to separate from it yet."

"It's a hard thing to do when it was the only thing I knew for over ten years."

She nodded at that. "I just wanted you to know you're not the only one struggling."

"Is James alright?" Jana asked. "And Cody?"

"Cody's a lot closer to it, of course," Elin said. "But they're both making progress."

Jana nodded and looked back down at the wedding album, smiling at the grinning Summers family. "When I was an X-Man, Cyclops was my hero," she told Elin without looking up at her. "And when I was Sinister, I tortured his family. It's a hard thing to reconcile."

"You know Scott was always sure that we didn't kill you when we were going after _him_ , right? Because you should know that. He always had it in his head to save you."

"Maybe he should have killed me," Jana said. "It would have made things easier."

Elin shook her head right away. "No way. It would have crushed him and Remy."

"Remy…" Jana shook her head. "I don't know what to do with him. I never _had_ a father and he's so... " She bit her lip. "He doesn't know what to do either:"

Elin let out a slow breath. "I … would go ahead and blame Sinister for that too," she said. "Just … get to know him. You don't have to do anything with him or about him. But you have to admit you kinda want to know more about him, right?"

Jana nodded. "He already offered to teach me how to pick locks," she said with a small smile.

"He hasn't offered up the family gumbo recipe yet? Because I'm pretty sure that's right there with lockpicking."

Jana shook her head. "No, but I'll keep an eye out for that," she said.

"Dad says it's all the fish that isn't fit to be eaten any other way," Elin laughed.

Jana smiled over at Elin before she looked back down at the album, pointing specifically at the cake-cutting picture that James had gotten when Chance was grinning at Elin. "You two haven't changed at all," she said. "When you were little, you both did that. Right there."

"Cupcake kisses," Elin said with a smile.

"Exactly."

"I never did want the stupid cupcakes," she said with a shrug.

"I'm pretty sure we all knew that. Leslie Ann was dreaming up your wedding last time I talked to her — well. Last time I talked to her before Sinister," Jana amended. "It's kind of comforting to see at least that much stayed the same."

"It wasn't easy getting there," Elin admitted. "Both of us were kind of … dumb."

"And I wasn't helping things trying to kill him half the time…"

"We had plenty of our own trouble," she said. "I refused to consider him. He flirted with every single pretty girl within a hundred miles …"

"That also doesn't exactly surprise me. I remember Leslie Ann telling me about his first Kindergarten girlfriend."

"Yeah, he was a pretty terrible flirt."

Jana smiled as she turned the last page. "Do you have a wedding album for Krissy and Sying? Leslie Ann said they got married and I still remember him bribing her with cookies to get her to play with him…"

She pointed toward the next room over. "The spine is purple glitter."

Jana smiled as she handed Elin the book. "Thank you. And… and good luck with Chance."

Elin smiled at her warmly. "I'll do my best. He … kind of woke up not realizing that we'd even dated." She cringed at that. "So I don't know for sure where he is right now mentally? But … he hasn't argued it either, so …"

"I'm sorry," Jana said with a frown, unable to stop herself from wondering if she - no, Sinister - really had done more damage to Chance than anyone thought.

"Not your fault," Elin said. "And it'll come back, so … until it does, I'll just enjoy him being all … awestruck."

"You should enjoy it," Jana said. "I hope he comes back soon."

"Have fun with the albums," Elin said as she gathered up the books and headed up for Chance. She was still shaking her head, thinking over the obvious change she could scent with Jana and the anxiety soaking that scent, as she pushed the door to their room open. "Should I come back later?" she called out to Chance.

Chance grinned up at her from where he'd been looking through their room - still thrilled with the fact that there was a 'their' room. "No, no, come on in," he said quickly.

"I … did have a little question for you," Elin said. "What … what's the last thing you do remember?"

"Well," he said slowly, looking almost sheepish. "I was finishing out my last semester in Canada? Mac and I took the flight suit on a solid run, and I was headed home for a team practice tomorrow. Or… tomorrow a long time ago."

"Oh," Elin said, nodding slowly. "Okay. I was just curious."

"For the record," he said quickly, "I am _really, really_ glad that I figured out how to — I meant to ask you out months ago. I was going to ask you at the fall formal, but I just…" He turned red and looked down and away.

She sat down next to him and gave him a kiss as she handed him the album. "On that note … here. Photographic proof that I'm not screwing with you. Not sure if the dress meets up to that last one you do remember…"

"You look amazing in it, I'm sure," Chance said before he'd even opened the book and then smiled widely. "Yep. I was right."

She had to chuckle at that and kissed his cheek. "Handsome."

He grinned brilliantly at her as he looked back down at the album. "Hey, sunflowers — I was right!" he said, sounding pleased with himself.

"You really were," she agreed, then leaned her chin on his shoulder as she peeked down at the pictures with him.

"Mom looks like she's gonna burst," Chance said when he saw the picture of Annie dancing with him. He turned the page and grinned at the picture of Kate and Chelsea dancing with Kurt. He was dancing with K in the background - and it was obvious K was pregnant.

He paused at that picture in particular and then glanced over at Elin, his eyes slightly narrowed. "Okay. I have a question to ask you, and I don't want you to read too much into it, because remember, I don't remember anything and this is a legitimate question."

Elin rolled her eyes at him and kissed his cheek again. "Shoot."

"Am I imagining remembering you saying you'd like to stop trying _not_ to have kids or am I just… looking at K and misremembering a conversation I overheard with her or something?"

Elin stared at him for a moment, cleared her throat, and nodded. "Why am I surprised that of all the things you _could_ remember - that's the first?"

"Well, how long ago was it?"

"Not very," Elin said.

"Maybe that's it," he said.

"Or … you've had it in your head for _forever._ "

"Elin, you know my family. You know my whole extended family."

She tapped his nose with the tip of her finger. "And you know that there is a vast difference between how things run in a family and having a person in mind," she pointed out.

"Well…" Chance flushed a bit. "I just… I've always liked you, El."

She shook her head and decided to let him off the hook. All things considered. She gave him a long kiss and then rested her forehead against his. "I already said yes. I know you want at least one little one. And if that's what you want - then I'm on board. But … maybe wait until you can remember that conversation?"

He smiled at her and kissed her lightly. "It won't take too long to get it back, right? Logan said about a week."

"That's what he's guessing," Elin agreed.

"I hope that's the case, because I really want to remember all of this." He tapped the wedding album with one hand.

"Such a rush. Last you remembered, you were still doing maple syrup shots — and now?" She shook her head and kissed him again. "I'm trying to decide if it's you being smitten or just trying to get in my pants."

He couldn't help but laugh at that as he curled into her a little more. "It's just that I've wanted this my whole life," he said. "Are we sure I'm not in some weird reality shift? Because last I remember… I couldn't figure out how to dump a stupid blonde."

Elin's eyes widened slightly at that. She had _no_ idea how to broach that topic, especially considering how Viper had left him so traumatized that his mind had taken him there with _Sinister_. And she didn't want to make him relive that. "You … you actually broke up with her," she said carefully. "She didn't take it well. But … it … stuck."

"Oh good, because I didn't want to date her in the first place," Chance said with a sigh. "This is _much_ better. By a mile. Or twenty."

"Yeah, she … and everyone else kind of knew that," Elin said. "She was evil."

"Yes, sorry, didn't mean to bring up an ex with my wife. That's bad form," Chance said with a smile.

"Oh, it's not a problem," Elin promised. "You know. Because I …" She paused and couldn't think of a way to soften it. "I killed her."

"Wait, wait, you what?" Chance asked, turning toward her with wide eyes.

Elin shrugged. "She was evil. She … had very bad connections and tried to kill Dad."

"I had no idea," Chance swore.

"I know. We didn't know for sure about her connections until the end. And then it all happened very fast." She gave him another kiss. "Guess I got a little territorial too. Maybe."

He grinned at her. "I really wish I remembered it."

"No, you don't," she laughed. "How about we just curl up in bed when you're done looking at the wedding pictures? Maybe I can coax your memory into working right."

He couldn't help but grin at her as he nodded. "Yeah. I like that idea."

* * *

Almost a week to the day after Chance had hit his head, he had nearly gotten all of his memories back. He was missing a few details from the Superior Rising/Friends of Humanity mission itself, but the rest was clear.

And Cody couldn't stop watching his brother.

Ever since realizing he'd lost time, Chance was orbiting Elin red-faced and apologetic, though she assured him he'd been darling and genuine and as Summersy as she'd expected him to be. He was mortified by the fact that everyone had seen him like that, but he kept getting the same response: it wasn't his fault.

And it wasn't. It was Cody's.

Cody knew he shouldn't blame himself. He knew nothing Sinister did was his fault. But Chance had been augmented as a _guinea pig_ , and Cody felt that hanging around his neck every time he thought about Chance's new abilities.

He was beyond relieved that Chance's memory loss wasn't more permanent. He had no idea what he would have done if he'd been part of an experiment that slowly chipped pieces off of his brother like that.

He was so caught up in watching Chance and Elin taking their turn cooking for dinner — complete with plenty of good-natured teasing — that he almost missed when Nate and Hope came in as well. Nate was big enough to catch his peripheral attention, but otherwise, Cody had been oblivious.

He berated himself for that too. Sinister would have been disappointed in his lack of telepathic awareness.

_God, I'm still trying to make her happy._

Cody ran his hands down his face and took a steadying breath that hiccoughed slightly when Nate sat down next to him.

"Gets easier, you know," Nate said.

Cody let his shoulders drop. _Eavesdropping?_

_Yes._

Cody almost laughed. _Well, at least you're honest about it._ When Nate smirked in response, Cody tipped his head his way. "Haven't seen you around for a bit."

"I promised Chance I'd check into something for him — in every timeline I could find where this happens," Nate said, gesturing toward Chance and Elin, the latter of whom was gracefully feigning deafness until Nate was ready to spill what he knew. _And you do this in almost all of them, too. I know everyone keeps telling you to stop blaming yourself._

_Yeah, it's a regular choir._

Nate smirked. _I get it. Hard to separate what happened. And that's fine as long as you don't sit in it._

 _Thanks, Nate,_ Cody said and rolled his eyes. _I'll just get right on that._

 _You're missing the point,_ Nate said, shooting him a dry look right back. _You want to take responsibility, how about you look out for them? Better than just sitting here feeling bad about it._

Cody opened his mouth and then closed it again. _Yeah okay,_ he said, which just had Nate raising one eyebrow before he went ahead and pushed past Cody's surface thoughts into the memories simmering just below that surface. Seeing how Cody was _still_ following the impulse to do what Sinister wanted and to measure up to what Sinister expected, Nate went ahead and cut that thread.

No reason for Cody to have to put himself back together with Sinister's influence still sitting right there.

"Is Annie coming to this party?" Elin asked sweetly, since she was kind of tired of seeing the telepathic exchange that left everyone out and let Nate keep doing what Nate did best. It didn't help that she'd been taking time in shifts to keep an eye on both James and Cody when she wasn't with Chance — so she wasn't entirely feeling Nate-friendly.

"She was talking with Leslie Ann when we came in," Hope put in helpfully. "But I'd never say no to more Grannie Annie."

"Just seems like a good time for _adult supervision_ ," Elin said, smiling tightly at Nate.

"Oh, never," Cody said straightfaced just to tease Elin, though he was clearly enjoying the increasingly unamused look Nate was wearing. "Unsupervised chaos is more fun."

Nate let out a huff and ignored them in favor of Chance. "Looked into the other timelines for you. Wade was right; it could've been worse. But here, you'll be alright. A little more prone to more like what happened here when you get bad injuries like that, but nothing out of the ordinary from what other healers have experienced, honestly."

Chance let his shoulders drop obviously. "Good. After that… I was starting to worry." He bit his lip, glanced toward Elin, and then said, "I'm absolutely going to regret this, but uh… what about the other timelines?"

Nate gestured outward with both hands. He didn't need to ask what Chance wanted to know; his little brother was all but screaming projecting that he was worried about not just his mind but what Elin had to go through when she'd already been through the wringer. "The memory issues are the most common for you," he admitted. "The worst of it, you never know what time you're living in. Getting names wrong, that sort of thing."

Chance rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, Pappaw's that way…"

Nate nodded. "Elin stuck with you, whenever you were in your head. Helped the older you got when most of your lucid memories were just the two of you."

Chance shot Elin a smile, though he nodded for Nate to continue, sure there was more to it, since he _had_ asked what could go wrong.

"There's a few where you've got the same issues as Wade." Nate pinched the bridge of his nose. "He hates it but won't stop trying to make the most of it."

Chance visibly winced. "Oof."

"Yeah, Elin and Logan _and_ Dad all at some point or another threatened _and_ inflicted bodily harm to get him to stop egging you on." Nate shook his head, though Chance was almost holding his breath. "The other timelines…" He met Chance's gaze. "There were a few where you lost everything that was _you_. Tried bringing you back, but your mind went blank every time you healed." He tipped his head significantly toward Elin. "When no one could fix it, rather than let someone use you like that…"

Chance held up both hands. "Got the picture, thanks," he said. That was what he'd been worried about, and while he was relieved to hear that was the case in a different reality than his own, knowing it had been a possibility confirmed for him how much he _needed_ to be careful, to keep Elin from bearing something like that.

"You got lucky, Chance," Nate told him frankly. "You could have lost it and forced her to have you locked up. Or gone further and joined the other side. We could have been looking at a timeline where she had to kill you to stop you from killing anyone else. Memory issues are nothing. And you've got enough of a handle on reality and on your healing in this timeline that you'll get to have a normal life. Occasional blip like this one? It's nothing." He leaned back. "So yeah. I checked. I'll do what I can to help in those timelines, but here? You'll be alright."

"Doesn't matter," Elin said, breaking in when Chance was still blinking in shock. "At all."

"El, it matters if you had to—"

"How many timelines did you look at where the same thing happened to me instead? How many were there that you saw where I was the one that was screwed up to the point of being a vegetable?" She didn't wait for Nate to answer before she fixed Chance with a sharp look. "If it can happen to one healer, it can happen to another. So unless you're having buyer's remorse or looking for a way _out_ of this … unclench and be happy with what you have — which is a _lot_."

"No, no, not looking to back out. That was the opposite of what I was thinking," Chance promised quickly. "Just… helps to have the reminder that it could've been worse. For some reason. Perspective, you know?"

"It can still be worse if you want to dwell on it," Elin said.

"Not the point," Chance said. "Besides, if that happened, I'd be right there beside you to look out for you, so again, not looking for anything but perspective, okay?"

She crossed her arms and looked up her nose at him. "This whole morbid attraction to the worst case scenario isn't attractive."

Chance rolled his eyes hard. "You knew I was a Summers when you married me, right? Gotta know the options on the table."

"You advertised yourself as 85% Hale."

"15% means it still exists."

"But you're missing the point now," she said. "Mom always said the whole point in having the healing is to _not_ dwell on the awful things that happen and focus on why you're still around." She tapped his chest. "If you go Dad's route, you'll be stressy and mopey."

Cody dragged a hand over his face. "You two need subtitles," he said, waving his hand between them. "Chance, you doofus, she's trying to pull you out of your head. _How_ you're missing that is beyond me." Before Chance could argue, he pointed at Elin. "And you're missing the Hale undertones of asking for the worst case. He's not happy with the memory loss, so he's finding a _silver lining_ by reminding himself how he got off mostly scott-free." He shook his head and looked toward Hope. "Telepathy sucks. You know that, right? I'm gonna be pissed off listening to half the language barriers around here."

"You're probably about to get more pissed, because she'll just tell her family to think in Japanese or something awful," Hope laughed.

"I will," Elin agreed.

"Do it," Chance said, smirking hard. "Cody still hasn't lost his temper since we found him, and I wanna egg him on."

"And I'll only talk to _you_ in something I know you don't know. How's your Polish coming along?" Elin asked.

"El, why are you like this?" Chance groaned.

"I just am. I guess if I'm going to be misunderstood, I'll go all the way," she teased.

Chance rolled his eyes but leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Thanks for being my rock, El. But if we're gonna talk past each other, we can skip words and do something else," he teased right back.

" _Też cię kocham_."

"I'm going to assume that means, 'yes, sexy, let's leave these horrible siblings of yours behind for better things'," Chance said and scooped her up, smirking hard. "Bye, guys. Dinner's in the oven. Just take it out when it beeps."

"Hey Nate — if you want a cookie for doing what you should have at the beginning of all this, you'll _need_ to talk to your stepmother. That's her department," Elin called out.

Hope broke into a huge grin. "I will _absolutely_ ask her for one for you," she said in a tone dripping with relish as Chance and Elin swept off. "Right now."

_You're enjoying this far too much._

_Yes. Yes, I am. And after this? We're going to see them when they're babies and I'm going to watch you_ drip _with step-mother sweetness. This is what I want for my birthday._

_You're serious?_

_I'll bet you a hundred bucks we'll witness a baby kiss between those two._

_Hope, we're not screwing with the timestream if it's not necessary._

_It's necessary. If you have to pick something big, we could always help with some big bad when they're little..._

_I don't mean necessary to your amusement, kiddo._

_Just for me?_ Hope smiled at him brightly. _For Grannie Annie?_

Nate rolled his eyes hard. _We change anything and it'll affect everything else._

Hope rolled her eyes right back in exactly the same manner, pressed her lips together, and then reached out to brush Annie's mind, smirked, and drew herself up. _Kree invasion. Annie remembers us coming to help. So we_ have _to now or it'll change the timelines._

 _You really shouldn't meddle with things like that,_ Nate replied, though it clearly wasn't a 'no'.

_Aww, learned from the best. Now, come on._


	15. Alyssa Makes the Big Leagues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Alyssa gets an interview with the leader of the X-Men. She's beyond excited.

Scott was still in a good mood when he got around to calling up James' friend Alyssa to set up an interview with her. He and Annie had opted to go up to one of K's cabins for Cody's birthday so that they could do something quiet. Chance was nearly up to speed — though still missing a few details here and there — and Cody was doing better about not getting quite so overwhelmed. But it was still much easier to just get away as a family and have a quiet celebration.

So he was in an excellent mood after spending several days with his family — and ready to tackle this conversation and the fallout ahead of them. He'd already talked with Chance frankly about the fact that he would be under increased scrutiny, and he had talked to the team about the fact that there would be people looking to get in any way they could for something like this.

But it was time to talk to the girl.

Alyssa herself was out with James when she got the call from a number she didn't recognize, and when she picked up, she went positively still when she heard Scott introduce himself on the other line.

"I'd like to set up a time to meet with you and discuss a story," Scott said. "If you're still interested, we'd like you to run our official statement on what happened with Chance. I understand you're the one who contacted James about what was broadcast. I appreciate you sitting on the story, so we'd like for you to be the one to break it."

Alyssa looked like she could have been knocked over by the slightest gust of wind as she held onto her phone with both hands.

"Breathe," James whispered her way.

She took a deep breath as she nodded into her phone. "Yes — yes, I'm definitely interested. I — I get out of classes at four every weekday, so if that works for you—"

"Alright, let's meet in the library at five on Monday," Scott said. "I'll see you then."

"Uh-huh," Alyssa said. "I mean, yes, I'll see you then."

As soon as she hung up, James burst out laughing.

Alyssa flushed. "You — but I — ah!" She simply threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. "This is amazing! Stop laughing at me!"

"I can't help it," James said, pulling her closer. "You're just so … happy."

"I have an exclusive interview. With the leader. Of. The. X-Men."

He was simply grinning back at her. "Yes, you do."

"I have an _exclusive interview_. With _the leader of the X-Men_!"

"Yes," James said, still laughing. "You absolutely do. And you're going to be amazing."

Alyssa grinned at him and kissed him all over again. "This is just — this is the best thing — I can't believe it!"

He shook his head at her and waved one hand. "Go on. Call your sister. I know you want to."

She beamed at him and kissed him one more time. "She's going to freak," she promised before she pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial for her sister, practically dancing in place.

She'd barely gotten into raving to her sister before James had to mutter to her quietly, "You know, you can bring someone with you. If you need to be driven."

Alyssa stopped short in the middle of the sentence and then grinned at him. "Kelly, do you want to come?" There was an incoherent kind of scream from the other end, and Alyssa giggled. "I think that's a yes."

James cringed and shrugged one shoulder to his ear, covering the other. "Oh, wow. That's … an assault."

"She won't do that in front of Cyclops, I promise."

"He might need an ego boost. I don't want her getting on my family's bad side, though," James laughed.

"I'll warn her," Alyssa promised as she hung up with her sister and then almost tackled him in another hug. "You are amazing. I'm so lucky."

"All I did was just sit here. I don't know what you're talking about," James replied. "But I'll take the kisses all the same."

She grinned at him and pulled him into a long kiss. "No arguments there."

* * *

When Monday rolled around, Alyssa and her sister arrived at the mansion, both of them in some of their nicest clothes and clearly excited. James was the one to answer the door, and he looked like he absolutely knew something when he gave them both a little smile. "You ready for this, ladies?"

"I don't think there's a way to be _ready_ , but we're as close as we can be," Alyssa said.

He shook his head with his eyes closed as he closed the door behind them. "Nah, you're ready." He tipped his head toward the hall. "Come on. I know you know the way, but I'll take care of your sister while you're being official."

Alyssa beamed at him and then kissed him. "Thanks a million," she said, leaving Kelly with James as she practically skipped toward the library.

"Oh, and be nice to Dad when you get there," James said before he directed Kelly toward the kitchen.

Alyssa smiled at him, figuring that he meant Logan would be around — but she was completely taken aback when she realized that Scott _and_ Logan were sitting in the library waiting for her.

"Oh. I — hello," she blurted out, suddenly holding her laptop and her voice recorder closer to her chest.

"Nice to meet you finally," Scott said as he gestured for her to set up her things.

"It's very nice to meet you too," Alyssa said, trying very hard to sound professional and not breathless.

"Relax," Logan said. "No one's gonna give you a hard time today."

She smiled at that and made an actual effort to relax, though it only worked insofar as she was able to get her things set up and keep a professional tone as she sat down across from them.

Logan and Scott shared a look after Alyssa looked like she was ready to triple check her equipment again, and Logan gave Scott a minute nod.

"Alright," Scott said, which got Alyssa to very quickly settle in. "Are you ready?"

Alyssa nodded. "Just a second," she said, then reached over to start the recording. "Alright. Where do you want to start?"

Scott smiled at her for a moment and then leaned forward. "The first thing we need to address is the fact that everyone on our team — junior and senior squad — is safe and healthy. I know there was a broadcast showing my son taking a hard fall, but he's alright." He took a deep breath and let it out. "The truth of the matter is that Chance recently had a run-in with a villain called Mr. Sinister. He's not well-known, but he's a geneticist, and he kidnapped Chance to run an experiment on him." Scott paused for a moment as Alyssa looked rather floored. "As a result of that experiment, Chance has some healing abilities."

Alyssa looked visibly shocked. "Oh wow," she whispered quietly before she straightened up a bit and tried to look more professional. That was clearly not what she was expecting to hear, and she was struggling to come up with a follow-up question. "What — uh — what happened after the kidnapping? He's back with the team now, so does that mean you won against Mr. Sinister?"

Scott nodded. "Yes, the team stopped Sinister. They were able to get there before the experiment concluded. Ultimately, Sinister had hoped to kill Chance, but he wanted to use him as a lab rat first. Because we stopped him from killing Chance, the changes he made to Chance — without Chance's consent — look to be permanent."

"Is he okay?" Alyssa asked, wide-eyed.

Scott nodded. "He's alright. It's a hard adjustment to make, but it helps that his wife has been able to coach him. She's been through that adjustment herself when she got her abilities, after all." He smiled lightly. "We're lucky to have her in the family."

"And… alright, so, if the aim of the experiment was to kill Chance, why give him healing abilities?" Alyssa asked. "Doesn't that… make it harder to kill him?"

"It was a guinea pig situation," Logan said. "To test the process — which was destroyed. That's all. He wanted to make sure that the end result wasn't more like Deadpool."

"And it isn't," Scott said. "Chance is still himself. Nothing that Sinister did changes that. At all."

"And is Chance the only one?" Alyssa asked, looking between the two of them.

Scott nodded. "We stopped Sinister. He's not going to touch anyone again — and he's the only one who knew the procedure. We destroyed everything else. This is _not_ something the X-Men will ever allow. We don't tolerate people who experiment on humans or mutants. Make no mistake — Mr. Sinister tortured the people he experimented on. It wasn't an 'improvement' or a voluntary program for anyone."

"I'm really sorry to hear that. That's just… awful."

Logan smirked to himself and turned his focus to his hands — obviously amused at Alyssa's reactions. Not only was she nothing like the usual stern, accusatory, combative journalists the team was used to dealing with, but Logan could also see exactly why James liked her. She wore her emotions boldly and unapologetically, and she had a soft earnestness to her that was impossible not to like.

Scott nodded Alyssa's way. "It's unfortunately part of the job sometimes," he told her honestly. "Sinister wasn't the only one to go the route of human or mutant experimentation — he's just the most recent."

"Well, it's just not right," Alyssa said, shaking her head. "It's _not_. You'd think this sort of thing would be _done_ after that book and all the outrage and — and the kids from the weapons programs testifying publicly and — and all of it!"

Logan looked up at her with one eyebrow raised. She'd gone from sweet little junior reporter to obviously outraged awfully quickly. "He was probably one of the first to do it," Logan pointed out. "It sure as hell wasn't new for him."

"It might not be new, but it should be _over_ ," Alyssa said. "People shouldn't - it's just wrong."

"We're workin' on 'em," Logan said with that same understated smirk.

Alyssa sat back as she took a deep breath and let it out, trying to act more like a reporter and less like a fan girl. "So. Chance is alright, and he's healing now. Elin's helping him. Do you mind if I ask you about the rest of that night? The riots with Superior Rising and Friends of Humanity — the X-Men seem to be caught in the middle on both sides. How do you deal with that?"

Scott took a deep breath and leaned forward a bit. "We've always been on the side of peaceful coexistence. We're not 'in the middle'; we're on the side of peace, and extremist groups are on the side of violence." He smirked lightly. "They'd hate to hear it, but they have more in common with each other than they do with the X-Men. Groups like that are built on hate and exclusion. They can't see that they're doing exactly what they accuse each other of doing." Scott opened his hands in a broad gesture. "Personally, I'd love it if the X-Men never had to fight anyone. If we could coexist. But until the rest of the world gets on the same page, the X-Men will make sure that the majority of the world, the people that aren't motivated by hate, are safe from the ones that are."

Alyssa blinked at him for a moment before she broke into a huge grin. "That was great — thank you," she said. "Really good quote material…" She straightened up a bit. "Okay, so — we've covered the riots and the way Chance survived. Is there anything else you want to cover?"

"I'm good. Slim?" Logan said turning his way and still smirking.

"I think that covers everything," Scott said. "Unless you had any questions?"

Alyssa blinked at him and then quickly shook her head. "Thank you again," she said as she started to pack up her equipment.

"You're sticking around for dinner, right?" Scott asked as he and Logan got up.

"Oh, I — I can, yes, for sure, I can do that," Alyssa said, nodding quickly.

Scott smirked at that as he put his hand on Logan's shoulder, and the two of them lead the way toward the dining room. "It's Logan's night."

Logan chuckled. "You're havin' a beer, Slim."

"I'm fine with that."

When the three of them got to the dining room, James was laughing outright, since Lily was interrogating Alyssa's sister. From about three inches from her nose.

"What do you think, Lily, does she pass muster?" Scott asked as he heavily sat down, leaning on Logan a bit.

"I dunno yet," she said, one hand on her hip. "She seems awful nervous."

"She heard about your rep, half pint," Logan said before Lily abandoned the teenagers to climb up on him instead. "Got 'em scared before they walk in."

Kelly smiled over at her sister. "She's really sweet, honestly."

"I know; I've met her."

" _She_ wasn't as nervous as _you,_ " Lily said to Kelly as she snuggled in with Logan.

Kelly flushed a bit, looking like her sister, except for the fact that her pointy ears were red too.

"Be nice," Logan rumbled low and soft to Lily. "Or you can't help me later."

"So, how did it go?" Kelly asked Alyssa as she sat down beside her.

"I think it went pretty well, actually," Alyssa said, grinning to herself. "Really well. It's - it's a big story."

"Were you expecting them to be terrible?" James asked.

"No, I just — I don't know. I was nervous. It's a big deal!"

Logan snickered at that and leaned forward to whisper something to Lily that had her outright giggling with her hands over her mouth. "You did fine," he said to Alyssa.

She beamed at him. "Thanks. I — thanks."

Logan picked up Lily and handed her over to Scott - and she absolutely attached herself to him in a bear hug around the neck. "You two have fun chaperoning the three of 'em. I'll be back with beer, Slim." He got up and headed off to the kitchen, where Annie was, of course, ready to 'help' since there was company, but it wasn't long before she came out with a can of beer in each hand complaining about getting evicted from her kitchen.

Scott just chuckled at that as he pulled her into the seat beside him. "I guess you'll just have to sit here then," he said. "Spend time with me."

Annie gave him a sharp look for only a moment before she rolled her eyes and kissed him. "Oh, okay," she said, which had him smirking.

* * *

Chance hadn't been all that happy with the fact that the story about his healing had hit the internet and was now making the rounds on the news — he really hated being in the news for any reason whatsoever, if he was honest, especially after all the slander the Canadians had thrown his way.

"What would you say to spending the rest of the summer just the two of us?" Chance asked Elin over breakfast, after he'd muted the news talking about human experimentation.

She looked up at him with a little frown. "I'd say … that you're sounding less like a Summers and more like a Howlett that's had just about enough of everyone." She tipped her head to the side. "And … I'd wonder if you had ulterior motives."

He smirked her way. "A little bit," he said. "But I really have had enough of everyone too. It happens. Rarely."

She couldn't help but smile at him from behind her mug. "What were you thinking?"

"Well, Dad said I should lay low to keep out of the way of 'interested parties', so I was thinking we could finish our anniversary trip that we never got to finish… go to one of your mom's places. That's pretty darn secure, right?"

She nodded slowly at that. "Most of them, yeah," she said, nodding. "Stateside? North America? Europe? Pick something."

"Let's stay stateside," he said. "Just in case."

"Alright. I don't know where you'd like to go," she said. "But I know there's a spot near the Pacific Northwest that hasn't been used in a long time."

"I'll let you choose," he said. "You're the one that had to deal with me when I was amnesiac," he added with a teasing little smile.

"Oh, yeah, so awful," she said with wide eyes as she nodded. "So horrible to watch you grin like that. All the time."

He chuckled and pulled her into a kiss. "What, should I start grinning at you more often to make up for it? Do you miss memory-less me?"

"No," she replied. "I just forgot how absolutely giddy you can get."

"Not like you didn't see it really recently," he teased. "On our anniversary."

"This is … very true," she admitted. "But that was different."

"True. I mean, you could have told me I died and went to heaven and I'd've believed that," Chance said, leaning over to kiss her again. "I love you that much, El."

"You're ridiculous," she told him quietly once the kiss had broken. "I'll get the coordinates from Mom. I'm sure no one will argue us going out for a few weeks. Summer's almost over anyhow."

"And we should end it with _not_ a bang," he said with a smirk. "Considering how we've spent the rest of the summer."

"You do know I'm just spoiling you, right?" she said as she got to her feet.

He grinned at her as he followed her and pulled her into a long kiss. "You do know I'll return the favor, right? Got the rest of forever to make sure you feel loved every day."

"Uh-huh," she said, one eyebrow raised. "No correlation to you and your memory and the _first thing_ you remembered?"

"Hey, I have no control over that," he said, holding up his hands before he broke into a crooked grin. "But it's a really good thing to remember, El."

"You're hopeless," she said, shaking her head. "And determined to rush into it, too." She was smiling at him as they found K chatting with Billy, but the two of them were quiet and waiting for them to walk in the door by the time it opened.

"Hey, Mom," Chance said with a smile — enjoying being able to call her that now that he had his memories back. "We were wondering if we could borrow one of your places to get away for a while. Dad's got me on house arrest, more or less, with the public reveal and all."

"Doesn't that kind of go against your house arrest then?" K asked, though she bumped Billy with her hip.

"I said 'more or less'," Chance said with a smirk.

Billy leaned over to K. "I can guarantee you they won't get into… _violent_ trouble."

"Uh-huh," K said, looking up at him with one eyebrow raised. "I know perfectly well what kind of trouble is coming, Mr. Space Pants. Don't even need to be a harbinger." She turned toward Chance. "You got an idea of which one you want to use?"

"Elin said there was one in the Pacific Northwest?"

K nodded. "There are a couple, but I'm guessing the one near the volcano," she said, nodding. "Fine with me — but you'll need to get James to give you the new panic bracelets. You know — the ones that he redesigned from Stark?"

"The ones he redesigned to keep his little sister from fooling around?" Chance said with a raised eyebrow.

K broke into a wide smile. "You're not saying that's the only reason you want to hide away, is it, young Summers?"

"Ummm, yes, I kind of am," Chance said, knowing he was caught and just running with it.

"I love that you know better than to lie," K laughed. "Go talk to James. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."

Chance shook his head with a little laugh before he waved her off and headed to go find James - which just had Billy chuckling to himself as he reached over to pinch K's arm. "Logan better get used to the idea, you know."

"He'll be fine," K said, shaking her head. "Besides, he's got no room to talk. At all. And I'll make sure he remembers it."

Billy chuckled at that and nodded. "Yes, I know a few things."

"Of course you do," K laughed.

….

James was in his lab, though unlike Stark, he kept it nearly silent rather than blast the music. It wasn't a focus thing — it was more about making sure he got it right when he could hear plenty that the other tinkerers couldn't within the machinery. That — and it was incredibly hard to prank him if he could hear you coming from a mile away.

He was just working out a new version of Amy — with one new feature that he wasn't sure Charlie would even be interested in: the option to project an emotion from one person to the next. He didn't even know if it would work, but with all the trouble Cody was having re-integrating, he thought it might be helpful if she could direct what Cody was coping with to whoever was vexing him at the time. And vice versa if necessary.

The truth was, he was half convinced that she'd get that eventually on her own — as a secondary mutation. It seemed like a properly Summersy thing to deal with, anyhow.

That was what he was doing when Chance and Elin arrived, and Chance called out to him to get his attention. "We're headed out for the summer, and Mom sent us to grab some panic thingies."

"Yeah, I heard you coming down the hall — no need to shout," James said before he looked up at him. "Which panic thingies? You need something passive with all the trouble you get into, right?"

"Probably," Chance admitted with a shrug.

He nodded and waved him over, though he pointed to a small metal mesh box on a shelf. "Bring that with you. Gotta fit them right."

"You know, if this is anything like what you gave Sadie-"

"Ah, for the record — Stark designed that, and it had a flaw," James said. "The little pulse thing that you're so worried about never worked right." He raised an eyebrow. "Ha."

Chance let out a little chuckle at that. "So it was a bluff."

"It wasn't a bluff," James said. "Howard designed it — and on its own, it worked great. But mixed in with the rest of the tech, he had in there — it just shorted out. I chucked it when I reworked it but didn't see any reason to tell Sadie about it."

"Evil genius," Chance chuckled.

James shook his head, with a subdued kind of smile. "Your best trigger on this is a verbal cue. Make sure it's something you're not going to use regularly. I'd suggest a more forbidden four-letter word. It'll also trigger if someone tries to cut it off. Or if it's hit with a scanner for bugs — which … I hate to tell you now…" He snapped it shut onto Chance's wrist. "If that happens? It'll inject a nanite-sized tracer and activate."

Chance looked down at the bracelet. "Is that gonna work with the whole… healing… thing?"

"Short term? Yeah. It'd be good for at least a few days," James said with a nod. "It'd be in the muscle tissue, and if the skin heals, takes a little longer for it to work itself out."

Chance nodded. "Alright. Creepy, but that's good to know," he said, turning his wrist so he could see the bracelet better.

"Chance," James said. "It's a failsafe. Get it back here and I'll get it off without any injection."

Chance nodded again. "I know. It's just a little creepy, that's all." He ran a hand through his hair. "And considering how Dad's been, it seems like it's just a matter of time before I have to use it."

He gestured openly. "I tried to go not creepy. I did. But my paranoia is a lil bit high, and seeing as I know someone will try to pull something … thinking a few steps ahead, that's all."

"Believe it or not, you're on the same page as _both_ of my parents," Chance said. "So… that's a thing."

James looked over at him as he helped Elin with her bracelet. "Honestly, I ran the idea past Dad before I built it," James admitted. "Make sure I didn't miss anything."

Chance nodded. "I appreciate it. Really."

"Oh, it's not just for you, sunshine," James said, shaking his head. "Take a look at the box. That's for both teams — and all of my siblings."

"You got a big ol' heart," Chance smirked his way.

"Shut up," James muttered.

"Love you too, little brother."

"Shut. Up," he repeated.

Chance just smirked as he slid his arm around Elin's waist. "C'mon, El. We'll leave him to his bleeding heart," he said in her ear, just to tease James.

She pinched him for that, though. "Be. Nice," she said before she kissed him hard.

"Make me," he shot back, just to get a rise out of her.

She raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I don't wanna _go_ anywhere, then."

Chance let his shoulders drop and gave her a plaintive look. "Okay, okay, I'll be nice."

"Wow," James said, shaking his head. "That was fast. Must be high stakes."

"Mmhmm," Chance said without looking at James. "Very important things to do. See ya later."

James covered his face with one hand. "Why can't I just die now?"

Chance pulled his arm around Elin's shoulders. "Thanks, James — see you in a few weeks."


End file.
